Yemisi Izuora
The National Emergency and Management Agency (NEMA) has received a fresh batch of 155 stranded Nigerian returnees trapped in Libya in their futile attempt to cross over to Europe for greener pastures.
The returnees comprised 41 female adults (five pregnant women, one female child and one female infant and 107 male adults (three male children and two male infants) with three minor medical cases recorded.
The returnees voluntarily decided to return to Nigeria when the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) offered them opportunities to return with free transportation.
The IOM Director General, Mustapha Maihajja, received the returnees on behalf of Mr. Segun Afolayan at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
He admonished the returnees on the need to utilise the new opportunities to restart a new life as their efforts at getting unavailable fortune in foreign land.
“We have been inundated with tale of woes on the sufferings that many of our nationals are going through and efforts are being made to ensure that helps get to all,” Maihajja expressed.
According to him, currently, the country has a very responsive and responsible government that cares for the well-being of all Nigerians.
He added: “It will not let Nigerians down but we want you to be agents of positive by supporting this Federal Government to put on your efforts at rebuilding the country progressively.”
One of the returnee, Khadija Balogun aged 23 from Ogun State expressed regret for attempting to embark on the journey, adding that her ordeal started from Cote D’Ivoire through Mali when she landed in the den of kidnappers on arriving in Libya.
“I spent a total of one million and one hundred thousand naira to get to Libya. In the hands of kidnappers, I was sold out but I freed myself with N400,000.
“After that, another group arrested me and kept me in jail for a year before my parents raised and sent me N750,000 before I finally got out.”
Hence, when Balogun heard of the opportunity to return to Nigeria, she embraced it voluntarily.
Although her dreams to travel to Spain foiled, she advised: “All those talks that there are opportunities are lies fake. Imagine that I use 1 million out of the money wasted to start a business, I would have been very prosperous.”
“No one should try to travel to Libya. If you try it, well, it’s 7 years imprisonment waiting for you on arrival. Libya has warned us not to come back. If we try it, we would be imprisoned for seven years,” he disclosed.