The plan by the Federal Government to begin the evacuation of Nigerians in South Africa on Friday suffered a setback as it was discovered that the majority of those interested in the process had expired passports.
It was reported days ago that the Federal Government, with the support of Air Peace Airlines, had scheduled to begin the evacuation of Nigerians from South Africa on Sept. 6 following the ongoing xenophobic attacks.
Allen Onyema, Chairman Air Peace Airlines confirmed the development in a statement on Friday saying that the airline had already placed its Boeing 777 aircraft on standby and was only awaiting the go ahead from the government.
He said : “The flight to South Africa will take off from the Lagos Airport and also return back to Lagos. As earlier stated, the take-off could be Monday on Tuesday [Sept. 9 or Sept. 10].
“This is because the Nigerians in South Africa have to obtain travel certificates because many of them don’t have travel documents and their passports have since expired.
“Air Peace has placed its aircraft, Boeing 777 for the flight since Sept. 3 but the Nigerian High Commission needed time to register the Nigerians billed to travel and they are already doing that in Johannesburg and Pretoria.