41 NIGERIANS DEPORTED FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK)
Before their arrival, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, had informed that about 83 deportees were being expected, and that some of them who had not completed their prison sentences would be handed over to the Nigeria Prison Service to complete the terms.
However, eight females and 33 males, mostly Yoruba, Edo and Igbo, were received by Dr. Bandele Onimode, Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, who represented NEMA Director General. On arrival, the deportees were served breakfast and later interrogated to determine their states of origin so that they can be assisted to locate their relatives where necessary.
Nigerian deportees from Uk, on their
arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos…yesterday. Photo
Lamidi Bamidele
The Nigeria Immigration Service was
said to have profiled the deportees although their identities were not
disclosed.
One of them, 37, and Yoruba, said he
left Nigeria about 17 years ago and had lost touch with home. According to him,
he put resources together to travel to the UK but could not raise the money to
process stay papers. He then began to engage in illegal activities until he ran
out of luck.
Another deportee, Igbo, who said his
parents were Lagos-based before he left for greener pastures, said he might not
be able to trace the parents because he learnt they had relocated home.
An aged deportee woman, who claimed
she left Nigeria some decades back, said he had lost touch with her relatives,
including her children.
Sunday Vanguard gathered that many of the deportees had used fictitious
names in their documentation as they were ashamed to reveal their identities
because of stigma.
Those who could locate their
Nigerian addresses were aided to return home while those who could not were
taken to rehabilitation centers.
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