149 Nigerians were on Monday deported from Libya after being stranded there for a while. This brings to 975 the number of Nigerians deported in the last five weeks.
The returnees were met at the airport by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the International Organisation for Migration after their plane touched down at 6:35pm.
The NEMA officials were aided by officials of Edo state government, the Nigerian Immigration Service, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Police.
The returnees comprised of 29 females, 115 males and five children.
Maihajja, who was represented by the Southwest Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Suleiman Yakubu, said the state had put various schemes in place to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees.
He advised the returnees to take advantage of these programmes to acquire vocational skills or further their education in order to enable them to contribute their quota to national development.
The DG particularly commended the advocacy, sensitisation and enlightenment programmes that discourage parents, guardians and youths from embarking on deadly journeys.
He said a special task force has been set up with the mandate to address the incidence of such deadly journeys.
