Ash cloud of uncertainty over return of Obika's family

ASH from St Vincent's La Soufriere volcano has shut the airport in Barbados until Friday, raising questions over the return of the family of former senator Taharqa Obika to TT from Togo.

Mrs Obika has been there completing her economics degree with their two children. They were shut out of TT by the border closure against covid19 last year.

On Wednesday, on Facebook Obika posted the cryptic update, "Make your plans and make God laugh. The volcano has now put a spanner in the works."

While Obika had publicised his family's plight to get an exemption to re-enter TT and to get a visa and succeeded in both, the volcanic eruption presented a new factor in their travel plans, he told Newsday on Wednesday.

Dust from St Vincent has coated Barbados and shut its Grantley Adams Airport, the connection point for the Obika family, who are travelling from Ghana to the UK to Barbados and then TT.

Mrs Obika was due to leave Ghana on Thursday to go to London to transit to Barbados.

She was due to fly by British Airways (BA) from London to Barbados on Friday and was then approved for a CAL repatriation flight to TT. It was originally set to leave Barbados at 6.55 pm on Friday, but Obika told Newsday it will instead leave on Sunday.

"The BA flight is not yet cancelled. It is due to land at 3.30 pm on Friday. So if BA keeps their flight open, it means they'll be boarding the plane and they will come. If BA closes, then, well, they will have to wait."

He noted the CAL flight was shifted to Sunday at the earliest.

"BA cancelled flights out of Gatwick, but not Heathrow. So it's a kind of thing where you are just waiting to see what happens."

He did not want to cancel the family's UK-Barbados leg and then find the flight still goes to Barbados.

"So at least if CAL flies her back (to TT), she'll be there already (in Barbados)."

Obika said his updates come from his travel agent, who monitors airlines schedules.

"Right now it's more than fifty-fifty," he said. "You are saying your prayers and letting God do the rest.

"I can't say more. It is what it is. Nobody could predict what is happening with this volcano."

He said Barbados was now under a significant lockdown because of the volcano, with schools and offices closed.

"It is a nationwide issue they are dealing with, that is unfolding as we speak with every passing hour."

Obika said some people have asked him why he was putting his family matters out into the public view.

"I'll just tell people that if I can't campaign for my family, I can't campaign for anything else," he said.

"I want to thank the Immigration Division for facilitating the request. I has a nice conversation with the officers when I went there todayn and I thank them. I'm just thankful. And thanks to you in the media."