Only 3 of 26 women who died at sea were Nigerians – Buhari

-President Buhari reacts to the story of Nigerian ladies who died at sea while trying to cross into Europe through the Mediterranean sea.

-He promised to put measures in place which would make such dangerous journeys unattractive to Nigerians.

Ladies who died at the Mediterranean sea were not all Nigerians.

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that only 3 out of the 26 bodies found dead at sea while trying to cross the Mediterranean were properly identified as Nigerians.

He said other bodies had been hurriedly buried by the Italian authorities before the identity and nationality of the individuals could be established.

The disclosure was made by the President while interacting with members of the Nigerian community in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire.

According to a statement signed by the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,  “When it was announced that 26 Nigerians died recently in the Mediterranean, before they proved that they were all Nigerians they buried them.

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“But the evidence I have from the Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, (Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa) is that only three of them were identified as Nigerians.

But I’ll not be surprised if the majority of them were Nigerians.”

“For people to cross the Sahara desert and Mediterranean through shanty boats… we will try and keep them at home. But anybody who died in the desert and Mediterranean without documents; to prove that he is a Nigerian, there is absolutely nothing we can do,” he said.

Buhari is in Cote D’Ivoire to attend the 5th AU-EU Summit.