The Federal Government has set a maximum of four weeks to complete the evacuation of over 4,000 Nigerians stranded in various countries.
The Presidential Taskforce (PTF) said it will evacuate 1,000 of such Nigerians weekly.
The citizens are stranded in various countries across following the global lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, 1,523 Nigerians have been evacuated as at June 13.
According to PTF Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, 500 of the evacuees would be landing in Abuja and the other 500 will be landing in Lagos.
He said they will be coming in under the new evacuation protocol, which demands a pre-evacuation test.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama said: “As the National Coordinator had mentioned earlier, that the mechanism that Dangote Foundation and others have put together to alleviate the need for evacuees to check into hotels for 14 days is now fully implemented and moving ahead well.
“So, if we can organise everything well, in the next three to four weeks maximum, we really should be able to bring home all of our evacuees who want to come back home.”
He added: “So, it is excellent news for evacuees and, of course, for friends and families here because it is going to commit us to be more predictable. It gives us more predictability in this evacuation and also enables us to bring more people back.”
