Evacuation flight: House of Rep chides embassy in UAE

....accuses officials of sabotage

Chairman, House of Representatives committee on aviation, Nnolim Nnaji has berated the Nigerian Embassy in United Arab Emirates for sabotaging the economic interests of Nigeria and Nigerian people.

Nnaji stated this while reacting to the marketing of Emirates Airlines’ charter flights by the embassy which urged stranded Nigerians in United Arab Emirates to buy the tickets describing the development as unfortunate.

He recalled that the House of Representatives had in June after adopting a motion on the continued use of foreign airlines to evacuate stranded Nigerians abroad mandated the committee on aviation to liaise with the Presidential Taskforce, (PTF) on Covid-19, the ministries of aviation and foreign affairs and their relevant agencies to ensure that only the indigenous airlines should carry out subsequent evacuation of stranded Nigerians abroad.

Nnaji, who represents Nkanu East/west Federal Constituency of Enugu State, said it was regrettable that Emirates has continued to evacuate stranded Nigerians from UAE with the active connivance of the officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi to the detriment of an earlier agreement that only Nigerian airlines should henceforth be engaged for such evaluations.

He condemned the continued use of foreign airlines for the evacuation flights, saying that it was robbing the indigenous airlines the little opportunity of earning revenue at this period of severe financial meltdown.

“All over the world, embassies and diplomats strive to promote and protect the economic interests of their nations but it is unfortunate that this has not been the case with our embassy in UAE” Nnaji said.