Stranded Ghanaian finally leaves for home

A Ghanian football player who had been stranded and given living quarters at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), in the Philipines, for six months will finally leave the airport Saturday.

Ghanian Ayi Nii Aryee first set foot at DMIA on July 13 this year after the Singaporean government rejected his application for a student visa.

Clark International Airport Corporation (Ciac) president Jose Victor Luciano said Ayi will leave DMIA and will be taken to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Manila where he will board a plane that will finally bring him back to his homeland in Ghana, Africa.

Ayi who was likened to the character played by American actor Tom Hanks in the movie "Terminal" had spent at least six months in the office of DMIA Crash Fire and Rescue Unit and was not allowed to go out of the airport.

Personnel of the Bureau of Immigration escorted the Ghanaian to his flight. A certain Dominique Samson of the Ateneo School in Manila paid for the round trip ticket of Ayi.

Ayi will return on January 8 to play for the Ateneo Football Club under the coordination of Samson. The African football player will also take up computer engineering in the school.

"The seemingly endless ordeal of Ghanian Ayi had ended and he faces new challenges in his life," said Ciac vice president Alexander Cauguiran.

Cauguiran personally took care of the stranded Ghanian from the start. The airport official sent food and money for the African football player and doctors to regularly check on his health.

"So long my friend. Next time you come around, tour the country and the Clark Airport," Cauguiran told Ayi who expressed gratitude to the assistance he received from the former Angeles councilor.

Ayi said he was "very well pleased, grateful, and highly esteemed to all the support, marvelous and tremendous concern and fatherly responsibilities shown on my status." He called Cauguiran his "maestro" and a "great leader".