Contingent of Nigerians fleeing from Ukraine after the Russian invasion could not leave Poland on Thursday. They have had their flight rescheduled.
The flight has since been rescheduled for Friday when they are expected to begin the nine hours journey to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Speaking to journalist on the reason behind the rescheduling of the flight, Ambassador Bolaji Akinyemi, the leader of the Nigeria’s delegation to Poland to evacuate the Nigerians, said the airport authority did not allowed the flight to be boarded because of reason having to doing with overshooting the time allotted for the flight
Akinyemi told journalists on Tuesday in Poland that: “The reality is that the flight has been rescheduled for tomorrow, and then main reason is because of delay during the checking in, they have to gather them together from different hotels and by the time they would be ready after the checking in, the crew that has been waiting since 9am had overshot the time allotted to them because they have a duty hour which is allocated to them, they have waited from 9-2pm and that means they have already waited five hours and they are going to have nine hours flight and that was already more than what is the standard.”
He added that: “The authority of the airport said they won’t allow us to board, this is the reality and then we have to come down.
“Arrangement has been made to ensure that we all stay together in the same hotel and we leave very early tomorrow; 4am we hit the bus and then we can join the flight.”
Scheduled Airpeace Charter Flight evacuating Nigerians from Poland today to Abuja cancelled. Passengers are now being redirected to baggage reclaim. The reason for the cancellation can not be immediately verified.