Despite reports in certain sections of the media that all Nigerians stranded in Libya have been evacuated, there are still thousands of men, women and children trapped at the Tripoli Airport, waiting patiently to be airlifted back to the country.
So far, according to an eye-witness, still unconfirmed from independent sources, only 2079 Nigerians were evacuated by two aircraft that arrived last weekend to continue the operations which had since stopped.
At the moment, said the eye-witness, Raphael Ayinla Ajibari, President of the O’dua International Community in Libya, the population of marooned Nigerians at the airport keeps swelling by the day, as more people continue to arrive, to join the swelling population already camped there since the beginning of the uprising. He estimates that there are still well over 3,000 people scattered in squatter-camp settings all around the Tripoli Airport.
“If they (Nigerian officials) really want to evacuate the entire Nigerians still in Libya, desperate to come home, they must be thinking of something like between 11,000, and 12,000 people,” said Ajibari.
However, National LIFE findings indicate that the impression in government circles is that the entire population of Nigerians in Libya have been evacuated. Further enquiries by the reporter point to the fact that indeed, all the Nigerian refugees at the Libyan airport are anxious to get out of that country. But this is contrary to the impression also given to government that those already evacuated were only those “willing” to return home, as also reported by the media.
In a distraught voice, Raphael Ajibari, speaking to National LIFE on telephone, from the Tripoli Airport, pleaded that the Federal Government should please have mercy on its nationals and urgently send planes to evacuate the remaining Nigerians still stranded in Tripoli. He said the many Nigerians abandoned at that airport are so desperate to get out that those who can afford it are even ready to pay money to save their own lives.
“I beg you in the name of God to please do something for us by informing the government that many Nigerians are stranded here. Many are even prepared to pay, if they can see any aircraft at all, to take them home.”
He went on: “Countries like Ghana send two aircraft daily, to take their people home, but I can’t understand why a whole Nigeria only sent two planes, twice and stopped.”
National LIFE made desperate efforts to speak with officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, (NEMA) the body charged with evacuating stranded Nigerians in Libya, but could not get comments from the agency before press time.
However, according to a source, which would rather not be quoted, government had earmarked a large sum of money (which he did not specify) for this operation. According to the source, the government arrangement also included monies to be given to the returnees, to enable them transport themselves to their respective destinations. This, according to the source, appears to be at the bottom of the dilemma of the Nigerians still stranded in Libya.
“You know our people,” opined the source, “somebody is short-changing somebody somewhere and it is not impossible that the money budgeted for the operation has been embezzled by some officials, while his own people are left to perish in Libya. It is a big shame and may God have mercy on this nation.”
At the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, (MMIA) Lagos, National LIFE sought to know from a number of returnees from Libya, whether there was any arrangement by the government to assist them financially, on their return.
According to some of the returnees spoken to, they had escaped into Tunisia from Libya, from where they boarded a chartered Air Malta aircraft which brought them back home and landed at the MMIA at about 8.20 pm local time, last Thursday and taxied to the NAHCO cargo wing of the airport. They said they were promised by NEMA officials even before they left Libya, that they would be given a token N10,000 on their return, to assist them with transportation to their respective destinations.
When approached, a visibly disappointed Isa Abubakar said, “I don’t want to say anything, I am very angry. The money they are supposed to give to us, they did not. They gave us N5,000 each, instead of N10,000,” he lamented, storming out of the premises.
Stanley Tawaris, another returnee, confirmed that they were all promised money before they left Libya: “We were told that we would be given the sum of 10,000 each but on getting here, they gave us only N5,000. Everybody was aware. Some of our friends are not living in Lagos State. Some would be going to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin and other places. How would that money take them home?”
Indeed, prior to the arrival of the refugees, a statement from an official, Sani Sidi, had indicated that the Director of Search and Rescue in NEMA, Air Commodore Alexander Bankole, would personally supervise the return of the Nigerians, to ensure their safety and transportation to their various states of origin.
To that effect, two LagBus-modeled Ashok Leyland buses, with registration numbers Lagos 44 KSF and Lagos 46 KSF belonging to Mutual Model Transport, were said to have been engaged by NEMA, to convey the returnees from the NAHCO cargo terminal of the MMIA, to their various destinations. But as at 10.30pm local time, the buses were yet to arrive.
From Abuja, Nigerian boxer, Bashiru Ali, who himself was among the earlier evacuees from Libya, corroborated the stories told by returnees at the MMIA. Although he said he did not know the exact amount budgeted for the exercise, he also heard, on return from Libya, that each returnee was supposed to be given some money but, according to him, nobody in his batch got a single kobo.
“You can quote me on this, not a single kobo was given to anybody in Abuja and it was even because of my intervention that a certain Inyang assisted the people by making arrangements for buses to convey the returnees from the airport,” said Bash Ali.
Meanwhile, when Ajibari spoke with National LIFE from Libya, last night, he said seven more Nigerians, including five women and two men, had died from suspected exposure to cold, at the Tripoli Airport.
Source:Thenation
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