The Federal Government on Sunday turned back an aircraft and officials of the Portuguese government that deported a Nigerian, Raymond Jnr, into the country, claiming he was wrongfully deported without due process by the Portuguese government.
This is barely three weeks after the same issue played out at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by the Kenyan government. The deportees were not accepted into the country by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at the Lagos airport.
BusinessDay gathered on Sunday that Raymond Jnr was brought back to Nigeria from Lisbon, Portugal, but the NIS requested the officials of the Portuguese airplane to return him to where he was coming from and follow the law on deportation of its nationals before he could be accepted into the country.
The NIS had requested that he should be taken back to Portugal and proper documentation filed before he could be accepted as a deportee from Portugal.
A top official of NIS explained that what the Nigerian government was only asking them to do was take back the deportee and comply with international law before bringing him back to Nigeria.
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The same situation is playing out between Nairobi and Abuja following the deportation of three Nigerians, with the Federal Government claiming that Nairobi flouted all known international law and diplomacy in deporting her citizens.
The Kenyan government, which deported three Nigerians, Christopher Nnanyelu, Oluwatosin Adebiyi and Anthony Chinedu, had brought a legislative order from their minister of interior to deport foreign nationals but Nigeria claimed that was not the acceptable process, adding that the Kenyan government had flouted all rules on deportation.
Nigerian authorities insisted that Kenya will not be allowed to fly out without the three men.
“On the 3rd of June at about 18:36 hours, a Kenyan aircraft with registration number 5Y-SAX, owned by Cavoc Airlines arrived Nigeria with a total of 18 persons. Among them, 15 were crew members while three were passengers.
“The three Nigerians were said to be deportees from Kenya, but the security agencies in Lagos discovered that certain procedures were not complied with and subsequently grounded the aircraft.
“That is why the aircraft has been grounded and it is going through security routine at the moment. As soon as the grey areas are clarified the aircraft will be released according to the laws of the land. The type of aircraft is DC-9 and the deported are still under detention”, Yakubu Dati, coordinating spokesperson for aviation agencies had said.
