Borno students and businessmen evacuated from Sudan along with other Nigerians have arrived in Maiduguri to a tumultuous welcome by members of their families.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the evacuees arrived in Maiduguri from Abuja in two chartered planes by the State government.
Welcoming them on behalf of the government, the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Jidda Shuwa, sympathised with them over the hardship experienced before their evacuation.
Shuwa disclosed that a high-powered committee was constituted by Gov. Babagana Zulum to collaborate with the Federal Government to ensure their safety and evacuation.
The state Commissioner for Higher Education, Mr Babagana Malumbe, who led the committee, said the state government sponsored the evacuation of 110 of its citizens, comprising 56 students from Khartoum to Egypt where they were airlifted by the federal government to Abuja.
“We also paid for their hotels in Abuja on arrival and chartered two planes to bring them to Maiduguri,” Malumbe said.
Responding on behalf of the students, Mr Mohammed Digol, thanked the Borno and federal governments for the timely intervention in evacuating them.
“We highly appreciated Borno Government for its effort in ensuring that we are the first to get to the border with Egypt,” Digol said. (NAN)
