Chinelo Obogo and Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

Another batch of 320 Nigerians escaping from xenophobic attacks in South Africa are expected to arrive the Murtala Muhammed Internatiomnal Airport, Lagos, today onboard an Air Peace Boeing 777 aircraft.

The aircraft is scheduled to take off  from the O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg at about 12noon after several hours of waiting for landing permit by the South African civil aviation authority. Nigeria’s  Consul- General in Johannesburg, Mr. Godwin Adama, said  Managing Director of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema had complained of  the refusal of South Africa to grant the permit for the flight to leave Lagos at 1am. for Johannesburg to convey the second batch of returnees.

Adama said the permit was eventually granted, and that if the 320 persons scheduled for the flight cannot fill the aircraft, another available persons would be allowed to board the flight back to Nigeria. He  said the next batch of evacuation would be based on Federal Government’s  directives.

“I do not know why they were denied the landing permit. I think it is an airline operational issue. They did not get it yesterday but they told me that it came late yesterday (Monday).

“It was weekend and they were going to get it this morning; the airline did not tell me it was deliberate, but they explained to me that they have gotten it.

“Our manifest arrived last night towards the close of work and they were to take-off 1a.m. Nigerian time yesterday (Monday) but they did not because it was late.

“I have gotten it now, so they will be able to make me know the time of their arrival here so that we can know when to take-off.”

Adama said buses provided to convey Nigerians wanting to return home were still at the mission premises and everyone was there.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has said Federal Government would not table the issue of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa during the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States of America.

“We haven’t got to that stage yet. And I don’t think it is necessary. I think it is something we can sort out ourselves. We have that capacity and belief to do that,” Onyeama said.

He said the UN was not a forum to sort out the attacks on Nigerians in that just happened in South Africa.

He said avenues were being explored to secure compensation for Nigerians whose businesses were destroyed in South Africa.

The minister said what President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Envoy to President Buhari said was that the South African law required all businesses to be insured, including getting indemnity from destruction during riots.

“If you suffer looting and damage, in their argument, that it should be covered by insurance  because the law requires you to take that insurance. It is not the government that will insure you, the insurance companies are there to insure, if you don’t have that insurance, you are actually in breach of their laws.”

He said the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa and the Consulate General had been directed to compile all the losses suffered by Nigerians, and the details of all Nigerians killed throughout the period of the xenophobic attacks.

“We are reliably informed that no Nigerian was killed during this last crisis, but of course in the past they were killed,” said Onyeama.

“We are compiling all the information with regards to Nigerians in South Africa, including the criminal elements, the acts of criminality being caused by Nigerians – drug trafficking, human trafficking and the killing of a lot of Nigerians in South Africa by Nigerians which apparently is actually that the majority of Nigerians being killed in South Africa, we are informed, are actually by Nigerians.