A plane carrying one hundred and eighty-eight Nigerian returnees Wednesday touched down at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos from South Africa where xenophobic attacks against foreigners have intensified.
Officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Emergency Management Agency and the Diaspora Commission and the Bank of Industry were on hand to receive the returnees who had harrowing tales to tell about their ordeals in South Africa.
The Nigerian carrier, Air Peace Airline, which had volunteered to airlift the returnees was orginally scheduled to have arrived at about 6.30 pm but had faced unspecified problems while in South Africa.
Local reports suggested that some would-be returnees were turned away for not providing adequate documentation for travelling with children.
Seven others were detained for allegedly entering South Africa illegally, reports had said.
The airlifting exercise followed an executie order by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 9, to that effect after Nigerians were reportedly targeted by South Africans who accused foreign nationals of dealing drugs or snaping up jobs.
Some 500 Nigerians have so far indicated their willingness to return to their country and another plane will be returning to Johannesburg, South Africa to fetch them.
GIK/as/APA