The 160 stranded Nigerians who arrived the country from the United States, Sunday morning, have been moved into quarantine in Abuja.
The US returnees which included eight infants, were the first batch of the 700 Nigerians who registered for the emergency evacuation flights in the US.
They were stranded in the US due to the coronavirus pandemic which caused the US government to close its airports against foreign travel, but the Federal Government had arranged a special flight to evacuate Nigerian citizens on a bilateral agreement with the US government.
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They arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around 11.05 am on Sunday, aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft.
The plane conveying them was said to have departed the Newark International Airport, New Jersey, Saturday around 8:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. on Sunday Nigerian time), and arrived around 11:05 a.m.
ET Flight 8509 conveying 160 Nigerian evacuees from the #US has safely arrived Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. #StayHomeSaveLives #COVID19 #PTFCOVID19 @NigeriaGov @DigiCommsNG
— Geoffrey Onyeama (@GeoffreyOnyeama) May 10, 2020
Geoffrey Onyeama, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had earlier said the evacuees on their arrival, would be quarantined for 14 days before leaving for their respective destinations.
A returnee, narrating his experience, said, the condition given them for the isolation process was favourable, adding that they were checked into a hotel at the Garki area of Abuja, and that their evacuation process too was splendid.
