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It’s unclear why the passengers, most of whom have been visiting Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj, have been denied entry.
Authorities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Sunday cancelled the visa of all of the 264 passengers who arrived in Jeddah from Nigeria on Air Peace , Every day Belief reviews.
It’s unclear why the passengers, most of whom have been visiting Saudi for Lesser Hajj, have been denied entry.
Every day Belief reported that the flight took off from the Murtala Muhammed Worldwide Airport, Lagos by way of the Mallam Aminu Kano Worldwide Airport, Kano on Sunday night time and landed at King Abdul-Aziz Worldwide Airport , Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“However to the consternation of the airline employees, the Saudi Arabian authorities introduced that every one the passengers’ visas had been cancelled.”
The incident occured barely one week after Air Peace launched a direct flight to Saudi Arabia.
A supply who confirmed the event to Every day Belief stated, “The screening of passengers from the MMIA and Kano Airport was thorough and there was no situation with the visas. These have been individuals who have been duly issued the visa they usually handed by the superior passenger data system which is accessible to each authorities in Lagos and Jeddah. We’re stunned as a result of this cancellation was introduced when the flight already landed.
“We’re suspecting it is a technique to frustrate the Nigerian service out of the route, some persons are undoubtedly not pleased with the choice Air Peace is offering, the direct flight to Jeddah as towards utilizing one other international airline which attracts increased fares the passengers went by the Superior Passengers Info System (APIS) throughout the check-in formalities in Nigeria which was additionally monitored by the Saudi authorities.”
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The newspaper gathered that it was when the Nigerian embassy waded in that Saudi authorities lowered the variety of passengers that will be returned to 177 from 264.
Every day Belief reviews that earlier than the graduation of direct flights by Air Peace, Saudia, a Saudi Arabian flag service, had been working instantly from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia.
The incident occurred at a time President Bola Tinubu is in Saudi Arabia.
President Tinubu is presently attending the Saudi-Africa summit in Riyadh this week to draw international direct funding to Africa’s largest economic system and mobilise capital to construct wanted infrastructure.
On the summit, Mr Tinubu stated Nigeria and Saudi Arabia have at all times loved a particular relationship at each the bilateral and multilateral ranges.
“Inside the previous six many years, our bilateral cooperation, which was initially hajj-centric, has witnessed diversification to cowl quite a lot of areas of widespread curiosity. It’s pleasant to notice the presence on this nice Kingdom of a lot of our compatriots and professionals, together with highly-skilled medical practitioners {and professional} soccer gamers,” he stated.
Neither Air Peace nor the Saudi or Nigerian governments have reacted formally to the incident as of the time of this report.
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