Nigeria Says Not Enough Facilities to Accommodate Returnees After Offering to Evacuate them

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said the country does not have adequate isolation centres to accommodate the number of Nigerians abroad willing to be evacuated after the government offered to evacuate them.

Onyeama at the Presidential Taskforce Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja on Thursday said the returnees would be evacuated in batches according to availability of beds in isolation facilities.

“We’ve received all the numbers from our various embassies around the world and we’re collating them. Then we’ve now selected two airlines that would be responsible to fetch them. The numbers are high and the places where we can isolate them are not enough for those numbers.

“So, we would’ve to do it in a staggered fashion and together with the NEMA and the Ministry of Health, we would’ve to come to an agreement to be bringing (them) back according to the numbers of beds and so forth that are available. We’ve now identified and we can go on with process. We are almost ready to go,” the Minister said.