By Kolawole Ojebisi
The fallout of the recent stern bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates may have started manifesting itself in the new order issued by the UAE.
This is because the government of UAE has asked Nigerians with expired visas living in the country to leave before August 17,2020.
The government added that failure to comply with this order by Nigerians who fall in this category will not be taken lightly.
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Against this background, affected Nigerian nationals have been urged by the Embassy of Nigeria, Abu Dhabi, UAE, to join the evacuation flights arranged from the country before the expiration of the grace period.
This move by the Nigerian embassy was contained in a statement titled, ‘Public Notice’ and dated July 21, in the statement the Nigerian Embassy urged affected citizens to immediately submit their papers for emigration processing.
The statement read, “The Embassy wishes to inform that the government of the United Arab Emirates has granted waivers on fines/penalties on visas that expired before 1st March 2020 to leave the country on or before 17th of August 2020.
“Consequently, the Embassy is urging fellow Nigerians living in the UAE to avail themselves of this opportunity to return home with the impending Air Peace evacuation flight scheduled for 1st August 2020, and or subsequent Emirates evacuation flights before the expiration of the grace period.
Accordingly, affected Nigerian nationals who are willing to return home are kindly requested to submit their names and passport numbers to the Embassy and or the Consulate for onward transmission to the UAE authorities in order to obtain the necessary clearance.”
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This is coming weeks after a few Nigerians based in Dubai were arrested for alleged cyber fraud.
Prominent among the alleged international internet fraudster is Abass Ramon aka Hushpuppi who was arrested by the Dubai Police in June and is being prosecuted in the US.
It was gathered that this development may not be unconnected to those reported fraudulent activities.
Amongst other moves, the UAE authorities recently excluded Nigeria from a list of countries permitted to fly into the Emirates.
Its aviation authorities had last week impounded a Nigerian aircraft for flouting safety procedures.
