After 12 hours of flight delay at OR Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, 187 Nigerians returned to their country of birth on Wednesday with tales of lamentation.
They were victims of xenophobic attacks in the former Apartheid nation.
Pre-flight ordeal
Sequel to a presidential directive that all Nigerians in South Africa return home, Nigerian authorities in Johannesburg had begun documentation of the affected nationals preparatory to their return home. The process of their return had been accelerated by the gesture of an indigenous carrier Air Peace, which deployed its Boeing 777 aircraft for the evacuation.
As the aircraft arrived in South Africa in the early hours of Wednesday, over 320 Nigerians set for the trip were subjected to new waves of security checks by Immigration authorities requiring them to carry out fresh biometric and other humiliating procedures before the six-hour flight turned to out to be 15 hours delay.
Tears cascaded their cheeks as they came to terms with the reality that they were abruptly coming home unprepared, and could hardly pick up their valuables.
As the aircraft landed, Air Peace cabin crew carried some placards with the inscription “Say No to Xenophobia”.
As the aircraft landed at exactly 9.32pm, the returnees were in high spirits, praising the airline, the Nigerian government and the Nigerian Consul-General for the great efforts made to evacuate them from SA. Some of them in an interview, told journalists that the South Africans were fierce in their attacks against Nigerians, going from house to house, shop to shop, looting and burning whatever they saw as belonging to Nigerians.
Julian Anthony from Edo State who said he was into media production and had been there for seven years, said, “It was terrible, my brother, we barely escaped with our lives, we were all scared, they go from home to home looking for Nigerians. The apartheid in South Africa is still there.”
Another returnee Onuoha Chizoba from Abia State who also had been there for seven years for pastoral work, said, “We were uncomfortable and felt that the best thing we had to do was to return home; some Nigerians are still there for reasons best known to them”.
“They are killing my people, yesterday another Nigerian died, they tell social media that Nigerians did not die, it is a lie, they are killing Nigerians, they keep them in the mortuary, some died in the bush”
“They locked up shops and burned all the cars inside, wickedness; they came together, they started breaking the shops, burning the shops, stealing things.”
On getting to the venue for profiling by officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service and during an address by the representative of the Federal Government, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the returnees started singing the Nigerian National Anthem to express their gratitude for their safety.
Corroborating the account of some returnees, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa said the SA Immigration tried to stop Nigerians from leaving by frustrating the airlift.
“They were trying to stop the airlift from happening but it has happened and we are happy that Nigerians are back home and so out of 317, Air Peace was able to do 187 and we are glad they are back and President Buhari has ordered that any Nigerians that wants to come back should do so voluntarily.”
