The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says 75 out of 230 stranded Nigerian Football fans absconded in Russia after the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Dr Tope Elias-Fatile, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja that the fans went missing despite government’s efforts to repatriate them.
Fatile said that 230 stranded Nigerian football fans were profiled to board chartered Ethiopian Airline to Abuja but at the last minute, only 155 boarded the flight.
“As at the last count, over 230 stranded Nigerians had been cleared to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to Abuja; however, only 155 boarded the flight that arrived Friday night of July 22.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the missing persons may have been trafficked.
“I have spoken to the D-G of NAPTIP and she had also indicated that they had sounded the alarm bells for these young children not to leave the country, that it had all the hallmarks of trafficking and irregular migration,” Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, his spokesperson said.
The minister insisted that some of them, among who was a nursing mother, were quite too young to have travelled to Russia by themselves solely for the purpose of the World Cup tournament.
He added that an investigation would also be launched into an allegation that some travel agents cancelled the return tickets of the football fans without informing them, leaving them stranded in the European country.
