FG investigates cancellation of 264 Air Peace passengers’ visas in Jeddah

The Nigerian government on Monday said it is investigating the cancellation of visas of all the 264 passengers, who were airlifted to Jeddah from Lagos and Kano on Sunday, by Saudi Arabian government.

The Nigerian citizens aboard Air Peace were denied entrance into Saudi Arabia.

Alkasim Abdulkadir, a media aide to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, in a statement on Monday said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now investigating the matter to see if any consular or aviation rules have been flouted, said.

“Nigeria has just participated in the Saudi-Africa Summit where bilateral discussions covering several sectors of the economy and mutually beneficial commitments were made.

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“The Ministry will ensure such actions that impact the welfare of Nigerian citizens are mitigated in the future in line with the 4 Ds strategy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the statement said.

BusinessDay had reported on Monday that a source who is familiar with the matter said that all the passengers and the airline personnel were shocked at the cancellation of the visas because during check in of the passengers they went through Advanced Passengers Prescreening System (APPS), which were also monitored by the Saudi Arabia authorities before the flight left Nigeria.

The source wondered whether what happened was a strategy to discourage the airline from operating to the destination because since it started the operation, it has been recording high load factor and even the flight expected to leave on Tuesday to Jeddah was already fully booked.

When the Nigerian embassy waded in Saudi authorities was said to have reduced the number of passengers that would be returned to 170 from 264.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.