By Wilson Adekumola
The Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyena, has declared that the Federal Government will airlift students and other Nigerians stranded in war-ravaged Sudan on Friday.
According to Vanguard, Allen Onyema made this disclosure on Wednesday while speaking in an interview on Arise TV.
Onyema spoke on a day the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, said it had mobilised buses to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to evacuate the students and other Nigerians to the Egyptian border from where they would be airlifted back home.
The Director, Special Duties of the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Dr. Onimode Bandele, had said in an interview on Channels Television Monday that the evacuation of over 2,000 of the students would commence on Tuesday but this didn’t happen.
NiDCOM, however, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the evacuation of the students would begin late Wednesday.
The Chief Executive Officer, of Air Peace stressed that the airlift of the students from Cairo, the Egyptian capital, would start Friday.
Onyena said three wide-bodied Boeing 777 aircraft will be deployed to Cairo today for the airlift starting tomorrow.
”Yes, we will begin the airlift of the stranded students and other Nigerians on Friday (tomorrow) but the planes will be dispatched on Thursday (today).
”the reason we are deploying the planes on Thursday is the fact that the buses conveying them from Sudan to Egypt will spend two days on the road to arrive there late Thursday (today), so we can begin the airlift the next day.
”We are currently in touch with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian mission in Cairo on this,” Onyema said.
Asked how the students would know where and when the airlift would commence, Onyema said the Nigerian mission was liaising with the students to inform them of the plans.
On why the airline was always involved in free airlift of Nigerians in dire situations, the Air Peace boss said it was informed by the desire to foster Nigeria’s unity.
He said, ”It is painful that the diversity of the country, which should be a source of strength, is now a source of division.
”This is a Nigerian project and not a tribal thing, as some people are already alluding on social media. It is unfortunate that we bring tribalism into everything we do in the country. So, airlifting Nigerians free from troubled zones across the world is our own way of promoting Nigerian unity.”
Also, the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission,, said buses hired to evacuate Nigerian students amid the ongoing crisis in Sudan finally arrived Khartoum late Tuesday.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, NiDCOM said the buses would take the students to the Egyptian border.
The students are thereafter expected to be airlifted from Egypt to Nigeria.
”Last night (Tuesday), the Nigeria evacuation team in SUDAN received some buses to transport Nigerian students to nearby borders in Egypt, before airlifting them to Nigeria.
”This has been sorted by Federal Government through @nemanigeria and the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan.
“More buses are arriving this morning (yesterday) and the stranded students will depart today,” the commission said, adding that the students were undergoing registration, ahead of departure.
