The Nigerian government on Monday said it is investigating the cancellation of visas of all the 264 passengers, who were airlifted to Jeddah from Lagos and Kano on Sunday, by Saudi Arabian government.
The Nigerian citizens aboard Air Peace were denied entrance into Saudi Arabia.
Alkasim Abdulkadir, a media aide to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, in a statement on Monday said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now investigating the matter to see if any consular or aviation rules have been flouted, said.
Read also: Saudi Arabia cancel visa of all Air Peace’s 264 passengers on arrival in Jeddah
“Nigeria has just participated in the Saudi-Africa Summit where bilateral discussions covering several sectors of the economy and mutually beneficial commitments were made.
“The Ministry will ensure such actions that impact the welfare of Nigerian citizens are mitigated in the future in line with the 4 Ds strategy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the statement said.
BusinessDay had reported on Monday that a source who is familiar with the matter said that all the passengers and the airline personnel were shocked at the cancellation of the visas because during check in of the passengers they went through Advanced Passengers Prescreening System (APPS), which were also monitored by the Saudi Arabia authorities before the flight left Nigeria.
Read also: Emir of Kano praises Air Peace for Jeddah direct flights
The source wondered whether what happened was a strategy to discourage the airline from operating to the destination because since it started the operation, it has been recording high load factor and even the flight expected to leave on Tuesday to Jeddah was already fully booked.
When the Nigerian embassy waded in Saudi authorities was said to have reduced the number of passengers that would be returned to 170 from 264.
