Some 160 Nigerians have arrived Abuja from the United States of America after indicating interest to return to the country following the outbreak of coronavirus in the world.
The evacuated Nigerians, who touched down at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, would be tested for COVID-19 and immediately quarantined for 14 days.
They returned aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft under the special flight arrangements by the Federal Government for nationals stranded abroad.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that that 160 Nigerians, includes eight infants.
In line with the government’s pre-departure infection prevention control guidelines, temperature checks were conducted on the passengers by a special medical team.
The plane departed the Newark International Airport, New Jersey, on Saturday around 8:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. in Nigeria on Sunday).
Officials who coordinated their departure from New Jersey were Nigerian consulate in New York, led by the Consul-General, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen; Amb. Tijani Muhammad-Bande, President of the United Nations General Assembly and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN; and Amb. Samson Itegboje, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, among others.
A British Airways Boeing 747 aircraft had evacuated 253 Nigerians from the United Kingdom on Friday while 265 others aboard an Emirate Airline were brought in on Wednesday from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
