THE Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Thursday, witnessed an unusual high passenger traffic, as a result of arrival of foreign dignitaries coming to grace the inauguration ceremony of the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.

There was a lot of flurry of activities at the international wing of the Airport until Thursday night.

We observed that the airport was packed full, as the various embassy staff temporarily relocated their offices to the airport to welcome their countries' representatives to the inauguration.

CEOAFRICA could confirm the arrival of the United States delegates of quite sizeable number, led by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, Linda Thomas-Greenfield and several others, in the team.

Also, the Venezuelan delegation arrived at about 3.30 p.m., led by Mr Jorge Arreaza and accompanied by the country's Vice Minister of Africa, Mr Renaldo and the West African Coordinator of the ministry, Mr Luiz Paz. They passed through the international arrival lounge.

Asked why there was no centralised point of arrival at the airport, the Director of Protocol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abdul Karim, said decentralised points of entry would better ease the upsurge of traffic of the delegates.

However, Karim could not give the number of countries that had arrived as at 7.30 p.m.

An official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who was at the tarmac, said leaders from Gambia, Togo, Liberia, Cameroun and Cote D'Ivoire had arrived.

He said the countries that may not grace the occasion were those requesting Nigeria's assistance for airlift from their countries.

He did not, however, disclose if delegates from South Africa and United Kingdom had arrived.

There was also an unexpected long vehicular traffic of local traffic travellers streaming into the town.

Another FAAN official, who preferred anonymity, attributed it to swearing-in of the president-elect.