The first flight carrying 104 Nigerian nationals from Muscat, India, onboard Salam Air flight OV 1011 arrived at 8pm on Friday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The flight which made a brief technical stopover at Khartoum international airport before heading to Lagos had people whose employment contacts had expired, including others with expired visas.
According to Edmond Illyuemi, chairman of the Nigerian Community in Oman (NCO), “All these nationals had been waiting for a flight service to their country for more than four months and we were searching for a suitable partner to fly with.
Illyuemi said Nigeria is immensely grateful to the Omani budget airline, Salam Air for facilitating the return of the nationals who got stuck after their visas or employment agreements had expired.The estimates kept by the NCO suggests that there are 1,000 Nigerian nationals in the country.
He further said that PCR tests, that is procedure for Covid-19 testing for all passengers was done at local clinics and hospitals in Muscat and they had a successful time in the Sultanate.“Besides, many of the passengers came through the checkpoints and they were allowed to pass through after showing the travel documents.”
