The Abia Government on Friday received five of its citizens, who were deported from Libya as illegal migrants.
The returnees were formally received at the Port Harcourt International Airport by the Commissioner for Special Duties and Vulnerable Group, Mrs Precious Achumba, and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Diaspora Matters, Mrs Vivian Iro-Uchime.
The list of the deportees included Kelechi Sunday (41), Aba South Local Government Area (LGA); Uche Ike (27), Chinonso Nelson (27) and his wife, Kate (28), all from Ikwuano council area and Tracey Amanze (22) from Isialangwa South.
Addressing them before handing them over to officials of their councils in her office, the commissioner expressed happiness that they returned from Libya alive.
She said that the state government had put the necessary measures in place for their rehabilitation and reintegration with their various families and communities.
She also said that the ministry would organise a conference for all the Abia deportees from Libya.
She also said that they would be enrolled in the state government’s skills acquisition programmes.
“Government will train you in any skill of your choice and after the training you will be financially empowered to start your own business,” Achumba said.
She urged them not to lose hope but to be prepared to reintegrate themselves in the society and begin to contribute to the development of their communities and state.
Also, Iro-Uchime said that a desk had been opened at the Diaspora Office to counsel and offer necessary information to prospective migrants.
She said that the deportees could have avoided their horrible experience ‘‘if they had armed themselves with relevant information before embarking on the ill-fated sojourn to Libya”.
She said that the office would collaborate with the Ministry of Special Duties and Vulnerable Groups, to ensure their “smooth rehabilitation and re-orientation”.
Mr Jackson Sunday, the Head of Department, Planning, Forecasting and Operations, Abia State Emergency Management Agency, said that this was the fourth batch of Abia deportees from Libya, totaling 19 persons.
Sunday expressed gratitude to the commissioner for her intervention in ensuring that the deportees were officially received and brought home by the state.
He also commended the commissioner for her interest and quick response to disaster and other emergency challenges involving the vulnerable in society.
Narrating their experience, Amanze, who said that she left the shores of Nigeria in June 2017, added that she was arrested on Jan. 1 as an illegal migrant.
She said that she had been moved to five different prisons since her arrest, adding that they were subjected to all sorts of inhuman treatment by Libyan immigration officials.
“Anyone arrested was sent to prison, while some were killed.
She explained that on the day she was arrested, she jumped from a two storey building in her futile attempt to escape arrest.
“There was no freedom, especially for the girls. We lived in perpetual fear and agony, no food, no shelter and we were always running helter-skelter in the city to escape arrest and torture,” she said.
In the same vein, Kelechi said that he was a motor-cycle mechanic before he left Nigeria for Libya in 2015, adding that he went through a harrowing experience.
He said that he embarked on the trip in search of greener pasture, not knowing that life would be miserable and unsafe for him in Libya.
According to him, in Libya, under-aged children, between the ages of 10 and 12, carry arms about, terrorising migrants, especially Nigerians.
The deportees were later handed over to officials of Aba South and Ikwuano councils for reintegration with their families.
