By Josephine Issac
The Muhammadu Buhari-led government has stated that it did not know that Russian President Vladimir Putin would order a military invasion into Ukraine.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama made this known on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Onyeama stated that the Federal Government would have begun the evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine if it knew that Russia would invade Ukraine.
The minister added that it was difficult to plan ahead because the Nigerian government didn’t know that the crisis between the two countries would escalate so quickly.
He said: “The majority of people did not know the Russians would invade.
“Putin was saying we are not going to invade, that this is just Americans giving them a bad name as it were. The Americans withdrew their staff, the UK also (issued) a travel advisory.
“We got in touch with our embassy staff. They are in the best position to know the situation. And at every point, the ambassador said ‘no, things are calm here’. The embassies in Ukraine were also cooperating. And they were issuing joint assessments of the situation. And they were advising their people not to evacuate. Now, we didn’t know how things were going to evolve.”
