According to Punch Newspaper, more than 700 Nigerians remain stranded in South Africa three days before the June 30 deadline issued by anti-immigration groups.
It was gathered that despite President Bola Tinubu’s approval of funds for their evacuation, bureaucratic delays have prevented the release of the money, leaving hundreds stranded amid escalating xenophobic tensions.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that although the President approved funding for four additional rescue flights after the first evacuation brought home 258 Nigerians, the money had yet to reach the designated carrier, Air Peace.
This delay, according to officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the Nigeria High Commission in South Africa, is stalling the evacuation operation and leaving hundreds of Nigerians exposed to attacks.
The officials confided in one of our correspondents that Air Peace had declined to deploy aircraft to evacuate the remaining stranded Nigerians until payment was confirmed.
The delay has heightened fears among the stranded Nigerians as xenophobic tensions continue to escalate across South Africa.
The President of the Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa, Rev. Frank Onyekwelu, told Saturday PUNCH that over 20 Nigerians had died since the renewed wave of anti-foreigner attacks, while many others had been assaulted, displaced or forced to abandon their businesses.
According to the officials, over 1,000 Nigerians registered with the Federal Government for evacuation.
However, only 324 have been successfully brought home so far through a combination of government efforts and private intervention, leaving more than 700 Nigerians at risk of attacks and exposed to the elements.
The first batch of returnees (258) arrived in Lagos on June 11 aboard Air Peace, while the second batch (66) arrived on June 24 aboard ValueJet.
Welcoming the second batch of evacuees, the Coordinator and Head of the Lagos Liaison Office of NiDCOM, Dipo Odebowale, who represented the Chairman of the commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, commended Tinubu for facilitating the operation.
He noted that the logistical challenges encountered after the first evacuation flight were being addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Ojukwu, who pledged that all Nigerians registered for evacuation would eventually be brought home.
Probing the logistical challenges, Saturday PUNCH gathered that Air Peace, which was expected to evacuate the stranded Nigerians, had yet to receive payment two weeks after Tinubu approved the request.
It was further gathered that the airline had planned to deploy its Boeing 777 aircraft to evacuate the registered Nigerians in four separate flights.
However, the operation was allegedly stalled because the payment issues had yet to be resolved.
A top official in the aviation industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to comment on the matter, said, “Air Peace was supposed to complete the rescue mission in four flights, but even before the mission started, we started hearing that about five airlines were bidding for the operation. Meanwhile, it had always been Air Peace doing this job before now.
“I have enough information that Air Peace has yet to embark on the second evacuation operation because of the payment issue.”
She further disclosed that the delay in payment to Air Peace was responsible for the intervention of ValueJet, which conveyed the second batch of stranded Nigerians to the country.
“The government gave ValueJet the job because discussions with Air Peace seemed to be dragging over payment, and operators are not ready to do free jobs now, considering the price of aviation fuel,” she stated.
However, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Saturday PUNCH that Air Peace was scheduled to carry out the second batch of the evacuation on Monday but failed to deploy its aircraft because of the payment issue.
The official disclosed that some Nigerians who had already been directed to report at the airport in Johannesburg in anticipation of the Air Peace flight were later returned to the Nigeria High Commission.
The source lamented that the administrative bottleneck was frustrating the evacuation plan.