The Federal Government has postponed the fourth evacuation flight for stranded Nigerians in South Africa after a fault was detected on the aircraft scheduled for the operation.
The development was announced on Wednesday by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, who said the flight could not depart Johannesburg after engineers discovered cracks on the cockpit windscreen.
According to him, the affected aircraft was grounded as a safety precaution, while Air Peace has been directed to deploy another aircraft to complete the evacuation.
“We have a situation in Johannesburg, South Africa regarding the operation of the fourth evacuation flight. The flight couldn’t take off because cracks were discovered on the windscreen in the cockpit. Air Peace will deploy another aircraft to South Africa later today to bring the returnees,” Ebienfa said, while apologising for the inconvenience caused by the delay.
The postponement comes barely a day after the Federal Government announced what it described as the final phase of its evacuation exercise for Nigerians stranded in South Africa amid renewed xenophobic attacks and growing security concerns.
Earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, had urged Nigerians who believed their lives were at risk to take advantage of the remaining evacuation flights, warning that the security situation in South Africa had shown no sign of improving.
She disclosed that the evacuation programme had been extended beyond the June 30 deadline earlier approved by President Bola Tinubu because of the continued attacks.
