'We drank fuel on our way to Libya'

Another batch of 161 stranded Nigerians has been repatriated with the assistance of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Union, about 48 hours after 257 returnees arrived the country.

The Southwest Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu who represented the Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihajja, received the returnees on behalf of the federal government.

Details showed that 78 were female adults and two female infants while 71 were male adults, five male children and five male infants. Two were with medical cases.

They were conveyed in a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with registration number 5A-DMG which landed at the Cargo Wing of the MMIA, Ikeja Lagos on Thursday night. The director general said the federal government was working with state governments to ensure that they were well catered for.

One of the returnees, Patience Ubosa 21, who was brought up in Benin but with parents from Akwa Ibom, narrated how they drank fuel on their way to Libya in the desert.

The fuel was given to them by the driver when they were hungry, she said.

She further said they saw a shallow well and rushed there to drink water but later they found out that there were decomposing human bodies inside.

She said they successfully got to Libya but couldn’t cross to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea due to attacks by fishermen.