90 Nigerians deported from Tunisia back to Lagos

Ninety Nigerians, who were deported from Tunisia, yesterday arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

A Southwest Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Agency (NEMA), Mr. Iyiola Akande, said the deportees arrived the airport by Nouvel Air Airbus 320-214 with registration number 177Y at 12.32am, instead of the earlier time of 3.05 pm, on September 9.

The coordinator said the repatriation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), with the support of the Tunisian government.

The returnees were received by agencies, including the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), which checked their identities to ascertain their nationalities; the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the police.

Akande said the deportees comprised two infants of five months and 14 months; 12 teenagers, 13 girls and 61 men.

He said 71 of them came from Edo State, eight from Delta State, three are from Imo and Lagos states, while Kano and Plateau have a total of three.

One of the deportees, Success Smart, a 15-year-old girl, claimed that she travelled out of Nigeria two years ago through the Libyan route.

On why she did not return with the earlier batch during the Libyan repatriation exercise, she said she was learning a trade to become a hair stylist and that her parents refused to sign an agreement with her master as an apprentice when she was in Nigeria.

She, however, regretted travelling out of the country and urged other youths against seeking greener pasture abroad.

Blessing Ogbabolo, 17, who also said she was learning to be a hair stylist, told that the harsh economic situation in the country forced her and her brother to travel out.

Asked about her brother, she said they lost contact after her decision to return home. “He must still be in Tunisia,” she said.

Emmanuel Oduoba said government should make life meaningful for young people so they would not contemplate risking their lives in a bid to travel out.

The Nation