The flight which was scheduled for 9 am did not depart the OR Tambo International Airport until 4 pm, following various obstacles reportedly imposed by the South African airport and immigration officials.
It was learnt that all the people on board were deplaned for the biometric exercise with the immigration officials spending about 10 minutes to capture each person. “South Africans were very strategic. We arrived at Joburg by 6.15 am. The intention was to leave by 9 am, but after clearing about 85 out of the 313 who were scheduled for airlifting, they insisted they should do biometric capture for those who were willing to leave.
Many of them who could not provide the letters were also said to have gone back home after spending several hours at the airport. Our correspondent was also informed that the representative of Geoffrey Onyema, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was barred from accessing the cargo wing of the OR Tambo International Airport by security officials.
Findings also showed that the Nigerian Consulate contributed to the rowdy situation at the airport as they did not give the emergency travel documents to those with expired passports until they got to the airport. Dabiri-Erewa added, “Because of the serious hurdles put in place by the SA authorities on this first evacuation, we will have to wait for an update from the consulate as they resolve some issues with the SA authorities. The next flight may be Saturday or Sunday.
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