Parents of the trapped Nigerian Students in Ukraine are appealing to the Federal Government to ask Russia for a Green Corridor towards evacuating their children.
Below is an account of the efforts made by the parents which are yet to be fruitful.
By Dupe Olaoye- Osinkolu
“I am one of the Parents of the more than 500 Nigerian students trapped in Sumy, Ukraine.
“The Students right now, are in bomb shelters, No food, no water, no light , no any form of transportation.No money and no banks are working. All the rail lines and some roads have been bombed.
“No taxis or buses wants to risk coming to pick them to other cities or towns where they can get transportation to take them to the borders.
Aside from that, it is snowing terribly and no one would dare trek in such dangerous condition.
“We asked the School Authorities to help organise transportation but they said it is only their Government that can give them a go ahead.
“We have tried to get in touch with Nigerians in Diaspora, headed by Abike Dabiri, but we were told that it is only the Minister for External Affairs that can help resolve the issue.
“We called the Ministry of External Affairs and for the past one week, all they could tell us, is the Minister is on it.No concrete Arrangements or information.
“The School asked us to talk to our Government to ask Russian Government to create a Green corridor, so as to evacuate all the Student, probably to Russia, since Russia is just about 58 kilometres to Sumy in Ukraine.
“Last week the Prime Minister of India, travelled all the way to Russia to talk to Putin to create a passage for him to evacuate Indian Students in Kiev and some parts of Sumy.It was shown on CNN.
Same goes for the South African Government.
“But so far, our own Government and officials are not showing Empathy towards these Students, trapped in Sumy.
“Infact, I was told by an official in Nidcom, that they are only concerned about evacuating those that got to the Hungarian, Polish and Romanian borders right now.
“The Students are under constant fear of the unknown, bombing, psychological trauma etc.
“We beg the Government to talk to the Governments of these two countries to please create a green corridor to evacuate these children.”
