President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening returned to the country after his trip to United States of America during which he met President Donald Trump.
The presidential jet that conveyed the President landed at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at about 10.30pm.
Some government officials were on hand to receive him at the airport.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, confirmed Buhari’s arrival to journalists shortly after his aircraft landed.
Buhari, who left Washington DC on Tuesday after his Monday meeting with Trump, was said to have had a stopover in London, United Kingdom.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, had earlier on Thursday attributed the “technical stopover” to the fact that the big “aircraft in the Presidential Air Fleet is currently under repairs.”
The presidential aide explained that the President had been using a smaller aircraft that had a limit on the distance it could cover, hence the decision to have a stopover in the British capital.
He explained further that the stopover was meant to refuel and carry out some checks on the aircraft before proceeding on the journey.
Shehu said there was nothing unusual about the issue, adding that the President was already on his way back to the country.
The presidential spokesman said, “The big jet is under repairs. It has been taken for major repairs. So the President is using a small plane and there is a limit to the distance the small plane can cover.
“So the technical stopover I talked about is that the journey from the US to Abuja is broken into two. Technical stopover is that the plane stops at a point, refuel, do some checks and then proceed on the journey.
“This is very normal. There is nothing unusual about it. In any case, they are already on their way back home.
“It is a routine thing. The plane can do Abuja-Washington, that’s about 12 hours and the maximum the plane can fly is 12 hours, 40minutes. But you don’t need to push it to the edge.”
Adesina had also confirmed on his verified Twitter handle, @FemAdesina, that the President would return to the country on Thursday evening.
“PMB arrives Abuja this (Thursday) evening. The good work of rebuilding Nigeria continues,” Adesina wrote.
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