SPANISH POLICE STRANDED IN NIGERIA

Seventy Spanish policemen who had escorted 45 illegal immigrants from Madrid to Lagos last Saturday found themselves trapped in the former Nigerian capital when the authorities failed to authorise their flight home. The chartered Swiftair plane had left Barajas airport at 11 am and the policemen expected to be flying back to Madrid that same night. But the authorisation to take off did not come through and the men were stuck on the plane because they did not have visas to enter the country. A Swiftair spokesman said he believed it had been a genuine error and that the company and the Spanish consulate in Lagos were doing everything possible to get the indignant policemen back home as soon as possible.