Emirates Airlines has stated that it is prepared to resume direct flight service from its base in Dubai to Nigeria twenty-three months after it halted operations there.

The airline made this announcement on Thursday through its official X account.

The service will be operated using a Boeing 777-300ER. EK783 will depart Dubai at 0945hrs, arriving in Lagos at 1520hrs; the return flight EK784 will leave Lagos at 1730hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0510hrs the next day.

“We’re back, Nigeria! We’ll be resuming services to Lagos from 1 October 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivalled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities,” the tweet read.

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer said, “We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard.

“With the resumption of operations to Nigeria, Emirates operates to 19 gateways in Africa with 157 flights per week from Dubai, with further reach to an additional 130 regional points in Africa through its codeshare and interline partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc, Tunis Air, among others.

“As a major economic hub in Africa, Nigeria and the UAE have built strong bilateral trade relations over the years, headlined by Lagos as the nation’s commercial centre. With the resumption of daily passenger flights, the airline’s cargo arm, Emirates SkyCargo, will further bolster the trade relationship by offering more than 300 tonnes of bellyhold cargo capacity, in and out of Lagos every week.”

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, hinted at the development earlier.

Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, has explained the difference between corruption by politicians and other people.

Ndume said corruption by Nigerian politicians should not warrant any serious punishment, noting that it is People-Driven.

The senator admitted that politicians “steal and share with the people”.

He stated this on Tuesday when he featured on Channels TV Politics Today while speaking on the death penalty as the deterrent for those caught with drugs.

He said when politicians’ corruption is compared to others, it is a “small one’

He stated, “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.

“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not tell the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.

The senator said he supports death punishment for drug dealers.

“The death penalty is the best deterrent for those being caught for drugs. If you do drugs, you are killing people.

“In fact, that means you have destroyed the lives of so many people and killed so many people,” he said.

Recently, the Senate passed a bill, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 passed by the Senate.

The bill prescribed death penalty for persons found guilty of trading in hard drugs and narcotics.

This has, however, been debated and faulted by many stakeholders on whether or not President Bola Tinubu should accent the bill.

On Saturday, some legal practitioners expressed different opinions on the debate over the bill. Some of them urged President Bola Tinubu not to assent to the bill passed by the Senate while others pressed for it to be signed into law.

Some of the lawyers stressed that the death penalty was not a solution to drug trafficking and other drug-related offences in the country.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed the arrival of 150 stranded Nigerians repatriated from the Chad Republic.

The agency, in a statement on Wednesday, said the repatriated Nigerians include 71 children, 48 females, eight infants, and 23 men.

It said the evacuated Nigerians arrived at the Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Tuesday at about 8:30 pm.

“The Nigerians were assisted back in a voluntary repatriation exercise programme by the United Nations International Organisation for Migration (UN’IOM) on Tuesday, 14th, 2024,” the agency said.

“The flight Air Cargo with registration number SU-BUR landed at the cargo wing of Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, at about 2030 hours.

“The profiles of the returnees indicate that 23 males, 48 females, 71 children, and 8 infants arrived in Nigeria aboard the flight.

“Some of the returnees demonstrated their joy at the success of their return back to Nigeria. Agencies on the ground to receive the Nigerians were NEMA, Immigration Services, Nigeria Port Health Services, FAAN, and the Nigeria Refugee Commission.”

Last year, 104 stranded Nigerians were repatriated from N’Djamena, the capital of the Chad Republic.