No fewer than 150 stranded Nigerians from Niamey, Niger Republic, have been returned home by the federal government.
This was said by Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, when she welcomed the returning passengers on Monday night at the Aminu Kano International Airport.
She said that the International Organization for Migration and the Economic Community of West African States collaborated on the operation.
She stated that the IOM and ECOWAS looked after the returnees as they were transported from the Niger Republic back to Kano.
The minister explained that the program was intended for the struggling Nigerians who had fled the country in search of better opportunities in various European nations and could not afford to return when their travels were unsuccessful. He was represented by the Director of Humanitarian Services of the Ministry, Alhaji Grema Ali.
One of the returned, Amina Aliyu from Kano State, recalled her ordeals by saying she went to Niger with her three children and sister Zara’u Aliyu in search of “greener pastures.”
We wanted to go to Algeria, but the driver put us off in the Niger Republic on the route. Without food and water, we suffered a great deal. My parents are elderly and destitute, so I had no choice but to travel in search of “greener pastures” when my husband ran off and left me with my children for the previous three years.
Aminu Suleiman, a Yobe State native who had recently returned, claimed he had gone to Libya in search of “greener pastures.”
“I was a tailor before I left Yobe, and I wanted to go to Europe to find greener fields so that I could start a fashion academy in Nigeria,” he added.
The National Emergency Management Agency, the State Emergency Management Agency, and other sister security agencies worked together to welcome the returns.