About 264 Nigerian travelers got the shock of their lives when their visas were revoked by the Saudi Arabian authorities on arrival at Jeddah Airport Monday.
The passengers were ushered back into the Air Peace Airline, which airlifted them and were ordered to leave the country and head back to Nigeria from where the flight originated. The flight had taken off from the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos via Aminu Kano Airport on Sunday night and arrived early Monday morning.
Air Peace officials and all the passengers were shocked at the cancellation of the visas because, during check-in, the passengers went through the Advanced Passengers Prescreening System (APPS), which was also monitored by the Saudi Arabia authorities before the flight left Nigeria.
However, the Nigeria Embassy in Jeddah intervened and 87 passengers were allowed into the country, while the others were flown back to Nigeria. According to an embassy source the Saudi Immigrations personnel said that they didn’t know who cancelled the visas but that they were cancelled when the airline’s flight was already airborne to Jeddah.
“The airline was exonerated in all this as the Advanced Passenger Prescreening System which is live between both countries would have screened out any invalid visa and its passenger. The system accepted all affected passengers and passed them on.” said the source
Air Peace spokesperson, Stanley Olisa, confirmed the incident and said that the airline would issue a statement after getting full details of what happened.
“The action of the Saudi Authorities is shocking. There is aero politics there, and there is also diplomacy,” said John Ojikutu, who is the CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult.
“There is a need for the Nigerian government to stand firmly with Nigerian carriers and designate them as flag carriers so that other countries will know that they represent Nigeria.
“Government must come out and intervene.”
