277 Nigerians stranded at the Egyptian border, due to the crisis in Sudan, arrived Nigeria on Wednesday after being evacuated by Air Peace Airline.
In a statement by the spokesman of the
airline, Stanley Olisa, the airline deployed one of its wide-body Boeing 777
aircraft with Registration Number 5N-BVE, to operate the evacuation flight.
According to him, the flight arrived Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 23:00hrs on Wednesday, May 4,
2023.
The aircraft had departed the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport Lagos at 15:10hrs on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.
The chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, last
week, offered to freely airlift Nigerians from the war-hit country of Sudan,
requesting the federal government to get them to a neighbouring country, as the
Sudanese airspace is temporarily closed for civil aviation.
Onyema said the stranded Nigerians needed
urgent assistance, saying, “I am compelled to help because Nigeria cannot
afford to lose her citizens in that country. It would be my own commitment to
making sure that the stranded Nigerians in the war-torn country are safe.
“Everything must not be left for the
government alone, especially as the situation calls for urgency and immediate
action.”
He stated that, recently, he was ready to
deploy three aircraft, including the jumbo Boeing 777, to airlift his fellow
countrymen seeking safety from the troubled North African country.
With the arrival of this flight, Onyema has
made good his promise and thanked the federal government for its role in making
the evacuation flight possible.
Recall that this is not the first time Onyema
has magnanimously deployed his aircraft for humanitarian purposes. For
instance, in 2019, he freely airlifted 503 stranded Nigerians amidst the
xenophobic onslaught in South Africa.
During the COVID-19 period in 2020, some of
his aircraft were also used for repatriation of Nigerians from several
countries, not forgetting the evacuation flights operated by his airline during
the Ukraine-Russia crisis in 2022.
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