By Sade Williams
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), in the first half of 2017, processed the trips of 691,954 passengers out of Nigeria through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos while those of 560,988 travellers arrived through same airport in the same period.
A document made available to test.clinztouch.com from the Ministry of Interior, shows that 519,215 were Nigerians and majorly males while another 179,739 were foreigners departing the country.
Also, within the period, 550,988 passengers arrived Nigeria through the international wing of the Lagos Airport.
The breakdown revealed that 392,237 of them were Nigerians while the other 158,751 were foreigners from various countries.
A source close to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) said that the statistics were important for government to know the numbers of people entering or exiting the country, adding that this would enable the government to monitor and plan adequately.
The document also revealed that at least, 4,281 Nigerians were repatriated from various countries in Europe, America and even some African countries through MMIA during the same period under review.
The deportees came aboard chartered and regular flights with different airlines
According to the document, between January and June, 2017, 2,251 Nigerians were deported through chartered flights majorly from Libya and a trickle of European countries.
The breakdown of the chartered flights deportees indicated that 1,321 of them were males while the other 930 deportees were females.
Besides, those deported through regular flights, which were mainly from Europe, South Africa and a few African countries were 2,030 Nigerians.
The composition of the deportees revealed that just like in the chartered flights, majority of them were males.
According to the document, males deported in the first half of the year were 1,502 while 528 others were female.
Out of these numbers, those who were involved in criminal activities in their host countries were handed over to the Nigeria Police for further prosecution, some who involved in drug related matters were handed over to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the airport while others were returned to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).
