There are discordant tunes between the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Nigerian Diaspora Commission over the real reasons buses evacuating Nigerian students from Sudan stopped in the middle of the Desert on their way to Egypt.
The Federal Government had commenced the evacuation of the stranded students after the students called for help in the face of the deadly war in Sudan. The war has seen to the death of over 400 persons. However, a video had surfaced Thursday afternoon showing scores of the students and others who were evacuated dumped in the middle of the desert according to them.
The students themselves, who cried out in the video said they did not know the reason for which the drivers of the buses suddenly stopped calling for help because of the dangers in the desert. NidCom Chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, had said she had spoken with the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency, whom she said assured him that all issues surrounding the disagreement had been sorted. “I have just spoken to the NEMA DG.
“They have started moving and the issues between Nema and the transport company have been resolved.” However, in what appeared to give a completely different picture from the NIDCOm Chairman said, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs through its twitter handle, implied that the incident that went viral in the video was as a result of a broken down bus. The ministry said in its post, “Good afternoon, it’s confirmed we had a bus that stopped but it was fixed and has started moving. Thank you.”
The declaration by the ministry had further fuelled speculations that some officials of the Ministry were trying to play games with the evacuation process. Many who responded to the explanations by the Ministry and NEMA expressed suspicions that some people were trying to play games with funds allocated to the process. Responding to one of those who accused the Federal Government officials of possible corruption in the handling of the evacuation, Dabiri-Erewa said it is “Difficult to be judge in this instance,” adding “but I’m sure the Federal Ministry of
and @nemanigeria would clarify. However, the first set has arrived the Aswan border in Egypt but the border is already closed. They will leave early morning and then proceed to the airport.”