Panic ensured at the OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday as South African Immigration service arrested Nigerian returnees who were set to board en route to Nigeria.
It was learnt that at least 640 Nigerians were delayed boarding yesterday, forcing the first airlift to be delayed by 10 hours.
As at evening yesterday, the operating flight, originally estimated to arrive at 1:00p.m., was yet to touch down.
An Air Peace Boeing 777 aircraft had left Nigeria on Tuesday and arrived at OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, at about 4:00 a.m. to airlift the first of the two batches of returnees.
About 317 Nigerians were prepared to board, before the South Africans started the problem. They(South African immigration) requested for their papers, accusing them of travelling illigaly.
Source has it that some of the proposed returnees initially lacked valid travel documents, which forced the evacuation to be delayed till this week, while the commission prepared valid papers for them.
After preparing their papers, the Immigration still seeked how they came into their country without clearance.
It took the intervention of the Nigerian High Commission for the South African authorities to make the procedure less hectic, but the rounds of clearance started taking a lot of time.
As at 2:00pm, only 182 Nigerians were allowed to board the flight, the rest were barred by the South Africa Immigration. They were frustrating the Nigerian High Commission too by re-arresting the returnees.
