Amidst the wave of xenophobia sweeping through some South African cities, the government of South Africa has deported 97 Nigerians for committing various offences.

The deportees landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Monday night in a chartered aircraft with the registration number GBB710 from Johannesburg.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that they were made up of 95 males and two females.

DSP Joseph Alabi, the Spokesman of the Lagos Airport Police Command, confirmed the development to NAN.

An immigration source told NAN on condition of anonymity that six of the deportees were returned to the country for drug offences while 10 were arrested and deported for other criminal offences.

The others were said to have committed immigration offences in the Southern African country.

All the deportees were profiled by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) while those deported for drug related offences were handed over to the Police for further investigation.

NAN reports that the Federal Government had also on Monday evacuated 41 Nigerian girls who were trafficked to Mali for sex and labour exploitation.

Six of the suspected human traffickers were also apprehended and brought back to the country for prosecution. (Adekunle Williams and Solomon Asowata/NAN)