Reps Urge FG to urgently evacuate Nigerian students from Ukraine

The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Federal Government
to urgently evacuate Nigerian
students in Ukraine following the worsening conflict with Russia.

The resolution was followed the adoption of a motion of Urgent
Importance to evacuate Nigerian Students in Ukraine sponsored by Hon.
Ahmed Munir, who solicited for the House intervention.

The House mandated the Majority Leader, Hon. Alhassan
Ado-Doguwa and Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hon. Buba Yakub to liaise with Federal Ministry Foreign Affairs and Nigeria
Intelligence Agency (NIA) with the view to airlift the Students back
to Nigeria without further delay.

The House also mandated the Majority Leader and his team to travel to
Ukraine on Friday and come back with as many Nigerians students as
possible by Monday.

The House also resolved that if nothing comes of this arrangement,
then it would work with local airline, Air Peace, to see how the
students can be brought home in a manner that would be devoid of
bureaucracy and bottlenecks.

The House mandated the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora in
conjunction with Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ascertain the
exact figures of Nigerians affected by this conflict and put in place
a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and evaluation mechanism.

The House noted that there is a worsening conflict between Russia and
Ukraine of which the situation is deteriorating by the hour.

It also noted that Nigeria has a significant number of undergraduate
and graduate students currently studying in Ukraine out of which a
significant portion, are under government scholarships, as well as a
number of Nigerian diplomats and their families in the Kiev Embassy
and Nigerian expatriates across Ukraine.

The lawmakers further expressed concerned that if a strategic plan is
not put in place to secure and provide safe passage for Nigerian
citizens, they may be trapped or worse, harmed.

To this end, the House mandated the joint Committees on Foreign
Affairs and Legislative Compliance were mandated to ensure compliance.