The second batch of 253 Nigerians evacuated from the United Kingdom yesterday arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. This came 48 hours after the first batch from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) were brought into the country by Emirates Airlines.
The latest returnees were flown into the country on British Airways flight BA9155. The Boeing 747 aircraft with registration Number G-CIVO which conveyed them touched down at 1.45pm.
The returnees disembarked from the aircraft after over 30 minutes through a motorised gangway rather than the usual avio-bridge. After the usual temperature screening by officials of the Port Health Services, they were led into luxurious buses which took them to the isolation centers already prepared for them.
However, some of them were airlifted to Abuja on an Air Peace flight while they would be quarantined in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Officials of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), the Lagos State government and other officials of the federal government were on ground to receive them. The same aircraft which brought them repatriated 215 British nationals from the airport.
It was reported that the British government has been repatriating their citizens from Nigeria in the wake of the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.