The returnees who had been brought home between March 20 and 22 without their luggage had been keeping vigil at the Hajj camp of the airport.
On arrival they were initially given N5, 000 each to enable them travel to their respective destinations, but due to the non arrival of their luggage, the returnees remained at the camp.
The card carrying Protestants blocked the road leading to the departure hall of the international airport terminal building thereby preventing vehicles from coming in.
File Photo: A cross section of the first batch of returness at the Abuja NEMA camp.
A combined team of security personnel were seen battling to put the situation under control as the protesters remained adamant.
While chanting solidarity songs like “Libya is the best, we swear by almighty God that Libya is the best”, they appealed to the Federal Government to come to their aid, demanding for the transportation of their luggage from their transit camp in Tunis to Nigeria.
“We are Nigerians now turn refugees in our own country. We want our luggage back or you fly us back to Libya to die,’’ the group said as they continue to chant solidarity songs.
The demonstration would have degenerated further if the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Airport Command, CP Moses Onireti, had not stopped some overzealous officers who wanted to tear gas the demonstrators.
While addressing the demonstrators, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Moses Onireti , advised the group to direct their protest to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)’s office and not at the airport.
“Government is doing everything possible to bring back your luggage. Please be patient,’’ Onireti appealed to the group.
Mr. John Agbi, leader of the evacuees, condemned the ill-treatment meted out to them by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) over their plight.
“We want our luggage in fact there is nothing that we want more than our luggage. Why we are still here is because of our luggage. I have been in Nigeria since 22nd of March and still I have not been able to get my luggage, we were the second set of Nigerians that came after the first set that came on the 20th of March .
“Apart from the N5,000 that they gave to us when we came back they have not been giving us anything until on Friday that they gave us N2,000 after we had embarked on a protest and they also give us N2,000 on Monday that was yesterday. “
He said if they had not protected earlier that NEMA would have stopped giving them and that the protest made NEMA to give them N2,000 each.
Agbi said “we are protesting now and the protest is not to destroy anything , but we are begging the Nigeria government that they should do something about bringing back our luggage.
“In fact, if they should give us our luggage now nobody will spend the next 10minutes here, let them give us our luggage so that we can go to our people.”
Agbi disclosed that the protest became inevitable after the first demonstration last week as the promised made were not fulfilled.
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