One hundred and twenty-three (123) more Nigerians who fled Ukraine amid the invasion by Russia have been brought back home.
They returned to Nigeria aboard an Air Peace plane with registration number 9HSLF which arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja at about 1:20am on Friday.
Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and that of other relevant government agencies were already on the ground to receive the returnees.
Also at the airport to receive them were officials of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM); the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), and the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.
While the evacuees comprise 122 adults and one infant, a further breakdown of the returnees shows that 75 of them are males and the remaining 48 others are females.
The latest batch of stranded Nigerians was evacuated from Warsaw, the capital city of Poland where they had fled to days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Following their arrival, the evacuees were subjected to the usual procedures such as documentation and test for COVID-19.
Thereafter, they were given the sum of $100 each to cover their transportation fare from the airport to their destinations in various parts of the country.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian soldiers, there have been concerns by authorities in Nigeria and other countries over the safety of their citizens caught in the war.
No fewer than 5,000 Nigerians, the majority of whom are students, are estimated to be living in Ukraine before the invasion.
In a bid to ensure the return of Nigerians stranded in Ukraine, the Federal Government activated an evacuation exercise following the approval of $8.5 million by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The first batch of returnees arrived on Friday last week and so far, about 1,200 Nigerians have been evacuated from Romania, Poland, and Hungary where many of them had been taking refuge.
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