The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that majority of
the affected Nigerian citizens are currently taking refuge in Poland, Romania,
Hungary and Slovakia.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria,
Zubairu Dada, alongside the Humanitarian Minister, Sadiya Farouk, made this
known to State House correspondents at the end of the virtual meeting of the
Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The meeting was presided over by Vice-President Yemi
Osinbajo at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
Mr Dada disclosed that the approval came after a joint memo
presented to the Council by both the ministries of foreign affairs and
humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development.
He stated that Air Peace and Max Air airlines had been
contracted to provide three aircraft and run as many shifts as possible to
facilitate the evacuation.
The minister said those to be evacuated include 940 from
Romania, 150 from Slovakia and 350 from Poland who had registered for
evacuation.
On the approved amount, Mr Dada said: “The ministry of
humanitarian affairs wrote a memo to the president seeking funding to enable us
to conduct this exercise.
“The memo was in the tune of $8.5 million which Mr President
has graciously approved.
That provision entails arrangement to evacuate no less than
5,000 Nigerians.
“Whatever happens, you can rest assured we are going to run
any number of shifts that it will be involved.
“Don’t forget, it will also involve taking care of those
Nigerians that (who) may decide not to come back.
“It also includes some assistance for the feeding that may
have been done by the missions under whatever arrangements. Even the missions
themselves are also in dire situations.
“So, it’s a whole gambit of activities that are involved.”
The minister confirmed that the amount would be released
immediately to enable the operations to commence today (Wednesday).
On students trapped in Ukrainian cities now in the hands of
Russians, Mr Dada said:
“We want to believe the Russian armed forces will obey the
rules of engagement.
“They know the rules about civilians that are caught up in
situations such as this. We want to assume they will respect international laws
and ensure that no harm comes to them.
“Don’t forget that even our missions in Ukraine have had to
be evacuated.
“So if for any reason any Nigerian is left behind, we are
very prayerful, we are hopeful that no harm shall come to them once, of course,
they are in some shelters or whatever place they are hiding.
“Don’t forget we had also summoned both the Russian and
Ukrainian ambassadors to our ministry, and we did emphasize the need for their
troops to ensure that they do not do anything that will harm the lives of
innocent citizens.
“We have seen video clips making the rounds about the
alleged treatments that had been meted out to black people who were on queues
and in buses and all that.
“All these we have brought to the attention of the
ambassadors and we have expressed our displeasure at this development and
demanded that they do something about this.”
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