NEMA receives 175 Nigerian returnees from Libya

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Thursday, received another 175 Nigerian returnees from Libya through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The Acting Coordinator, NEMA’s Lagos Territorial Office, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, told journalists that they arrived at the airport at about 9.48 p.m. on Wednesday.

Amongst the returnees were 92 male adults, 53 female adults, six male children, 12 female children, nine male infants and three female infants.

The Acting Coordinator disclosed that they departed from Mitiga International Airport, Tripoli, aboard a chartered Boeing 737-400 with registration number 5A-WAC and were received at the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company wing of the MMA.

He further explained that the returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration through a voluntary repatriation programme for distressed persons.

The NEMA boss added that the EU sponsored the repatriation of the stranded Nigerians who had failed in their attempt to search for greener pastures outside Nigeria.

READ ALSO: NEMA says 7,000 residents affected by bandit attacks in two Sokoto LGAs

Meanwhile, one of the returnees, Azizat Omoniyi, 21, from Lagos State who abandoned her education when she was 17 years old, expressed regret at her misbehaviour, especially for wasting her father’s hard-earned money.

According to her, “we don’t appreciate what we have until it is lost,” advising anyone thinking of travelling without a set and achievable objectives to drop the idea.

Omoniyi said: “I deceived my father that I wanted to establish a business and he gave me ₦800,000, but I used it for the Libyan trip through the desert.”

The returnee noted that a friend in Ibadan convinced her to travel to Libya where she would work and receive a monthly salary of ₦120,000.

She revealed the fact that she raised an equivalent of ₦2 million as a prostitute to free herself from the trafficker.

“I wasted my life. The lessons are very bitter. I want to go back to school. I stopped schooling at SS2 and have learnt my lessons,’’ she pleaded

The remorseful Azizat continued: “I do not know my father’s location. I lost everything that I thought I could bring back home when the police raided our house and threw all of us into prison.

“We were dispossessed of our savings and property. I lost the phone in which l had my father’s contact.

“I have to wait till my transport allowance is paid before I can buy a phone and try to gamble with numbers to know if I can get my father’s contact.”

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