Responses to the abuse of 250 Nigerian prisoners in Ethiopia

When Dr. Paul Ezike’s video about the alleged suffering of some Nigerians in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia’s Kaliti Prisons, recently went viral, it served as a brief reminder of the conditions that Nigerians have endured in several prisons abroad, particularly in Asian nations and Libya over the past few years.

There have been worrying reports in the past concerning the inhumane treatment of Nigerians in China’s Guangdong Prisons. It was even once claimed that some of them were being surreptitiously killed and their vital organs taken for commercial gain.

However, the situation is largely identical to that of Nigerians in other prisons in China, including those in Beijing. For Nigerian prisoners in other Asian nations including Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, the situation is likewise not favourable.

Furthermore, gruesome accounts of what Nigerian migrants who attempt to get to Europe via Libya endure in the Libyan prisons where many of them frequently wind up have surfaced. Because a fellow African nation was implicated this time, many people were especially worried when Dr. Ezike’s video surfaced online.

In the video, Ezike voiced concern that more than 250 Nigerians were in danger of dying unless the Nigerian government or other intervention agencies took immediate action.

He said that the majority of the prisoners were innocent tourists whose sole transgression was making a stopover at Ethiopia’s transit hub airport.

According to reports, the majority of those Nigerians didn’t break any laws.

The article claims that their offence was simply being Nigerian. Ezike’s statement in his video that “Once you have a green passport, you are like a suspect” supported this. They’ll separate you, cause you to be late, and cause you to miss your flight. They want to enrage you, and after you become agitated and argumentative, they will inform you that you must pay $5,000 to board another trip to your own country.

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“They’ll take you straight to the hospital if you talk too much, and they’ll take you straight to prison if they check and find nothing. And they give you notice that you will spend 18 to 20 years behind bars without being brought before a judge.

Remember that two Nigerians, Mr. Joachim Uchenna Nwanneneme and Ms. Favour Chizoba, were said to have perished in suspicious circumstances in the same Kaliti Prison earlier this year. Due to the fact that they were Nigerian, many people believed that they had been tortured to death.

Both chambers of the National Assembly are not accepting the report at its value, despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ denial that it is excessively overstated. They seek to solve the problem from the inside out.

While the House of Representatives has also invited Yusuf Tuggar, the minister of foreign affairs, and Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairman of the Nigeria in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), to shed more light on the unfortunate development, the Senate has directed its Committee on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs to investigate the report and determine the circumstances that led to the imprisonment of over 250 Nigerians in Kaliti Prisons as well as other prisons in Ethiopia.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry released the following statement in response to the report: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers Dr. Ezike’s narration as exaggerated and blown out of proportion, while his assertion of inaction by the Nigerian Mission in Addis Abeba to the alleged plight of Nigerian inmates is unfair and misleading.”

The Senate’s Committees on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs were instructed to look into the circumstances behind the detention of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia on Wednesday, October 4. They were given two weeks to do so after receiving their findings.

This came after a proposal made by Simon Mwadkwon, the Senate Minority Leader, at Wednesday’s session.

Mwadkwon, like many other Nigerians, was unable to accept the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ denial of the online rumour that over 250 Nigerians were being mistreated in Ethiopia without having done anything wrong.

Some Nigerians turned to social media to demand that the federal government step in and immediately take action about the alleged illegal detention of Nigerians by the Ethiopian government, despite the Ministry’s dismissal of the report as exaggerated and blown out of proportion.

Mwadkwon, who presented his motion in the plenary, had referred to the report as troubling because, in his opinion, it lacks a legal foundation in the rules of the international tribunals, to which Nigeria and Ethiopia are signatories.

“The video tape making the rounds on social media suggests that Nigerians are being held captive in Ethiopia’s highest prison and are in grave danger, which necessitates an immediate intervention and careful investigation.

“Based on the sovereignty of this nation and the sanctity of lives and property of all Nigerians worldwide as captured in the Nigerian constitution, particularly Sections 33, 34, and 35 of the 1999 constitution as amended, which have similar provisions in order international courts, instruments, and conventions that the Nigerian and the Ethiopian are signatories to, there is no justification whatsoever for taking away the dignity of any person, let alone taking away one’s own property,” the Nigerian constitution states.

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“It is pathetic that citizens of a country as populous as Nigeria, the giant of Africa, are being held in captivity in the 21st century, where the call is for unity among nation-states, but Ethiopia has chosen the shallow path to maltreat and mistreat the citizens of Nigeria without any justification as shown in a video,” he said.

The motion’s seconder, Mohammed Mongunu (Borno North), urged the government to step up since safeguarding the lives and property of its people is its primary duty.

“Citizen-driven diplomacy is meant to be our diplomatic cornerstone. Nigerians should be the focal point of our diplomatic relationship, wherever they may be. Since protecting lives and property comes first in our constitution and since it is the fundamental function of government, they should be citizen-centered.

“Any government that fails, or neglects to perform that primary duty of protecting the lives and interests of its citizens, should not last a minute longer than the action which is necessary,” Mongunu stated.

Titus Zam, who was speaking on behalf of Benue Northwest, urged the government to work with the Ethiopian embassy and find a method to obtain the release of Nigerians who are now detained in Ethiopia’s maximum security prison.

It discusses Nigerians’ fundamental rights, both at home and in the diaspora. Despite the fact that we lack adequate knowledge about the nature of the charges or crimes committed by Nigerians who are on Ethiopia’s death list, I believe that it is our duty as human beings to work to safeguard Nigerians wherever they may be.

“I support that immediate action be taken in coordination with the Ethiopian embassy in Nigeria to find solutions to this issue without sacrificing even one Nigerian, despite whatever the circumstances may be over there,”

After ordering Senate committees to look into the matter, Senate President Godswill Akpabio made a statement in which he also denounced discrimination against Nigerians abroad. He pleaded with the appropriate authorities to treat the problem of Nigerians living abroad seriously.

Every Nigerian’s life is important, and I would want to take this occasion to ask the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s relevant authorities to treat the lives of Nigerians both at home and abroad seriously.

“I am aware that many Nigerians face discrimination in nations like South Africa, and some have even stopped issuing green passports because they claim that people cannot enter their countries using the green passports. Some of those countries aren’t even the size of Enugu State.

In addition to addressing this issue, Akpabio argued that action should be taken to restore Nigeria’s government, the largest black nation in the world.

In a same vein, the House of Representatives summoned the head of NIDCOM, Dabiri-Erewa, and foreign affairs minister Tuggar over the development.

The action was taken in response to a motion made on Thursday, October 5 by Kingsley Chinda, the Minority Leader.

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Chinda, who reaffirmed that 250 Nigerians are now detained in Ethiopia, pointed out that some of the prisoners were captured while using the country as a transit country, even as he maintained that Nigerians in the East African nation were routinely victimised and mistreated.

Currently spending time in Ethiopia’s Chaota Maximum Security and other prisons are some Nigerians. The majority of them are passengers that utilise the airport in Ethiopia as a stopover. About 250 Nigerians are currently incarcerated in Ethiopia for a variety of offences, and due to regular attacks, they risk dying in custody if immediate action is not taken to protect them, he said.

Therefore, the House decided that Tuggar and Dabiri should testify before the foreign affairs, diaspora, and human rights committees. After then, the committees must deliver their reports within two weeks.

Although the Nigerian government’s legislative branch has taken action, Nigerians are also urging the government to use all of its diplomatic resources to ensure that the Nigerians detained in Ethiopian prisons are either released unconditionally if they are found to be innocent or sent back to Nigeria to complete their sentences if they were found guilty of the crime they were arrested for.

The proponents of this theory contend that unless the Nigerians in question also committed crimes unrelated to immigration charges, they shouldn’t be permitted to remain in custody there. They continued by saying that because migration is a natural aspect of human existence, it is not a crime whether it is legal or illegal.

Osita Osemene, a migration consultant and the founder of the Patriotic Citizens Initiative who contributed to the conversation, asserts that the development was nothing new because Nigerians are dispersed throughout different prisons in different nations for various offences.

He pointed out that while sometimes Nigerians are actually found to have committed one crime or another, other times they are simply singled out for attention because they are Nigerians and it is widely believed that most Nigerians are corrupt and need to be dealt with harshly even when nothing incriminating is discovered about them.

He stated that some Nigerians serving prison sentences abroad were known to have engaged in offences ranging from drug use to financial fraud to entering foreign nations without the necessary documentation.

“When I was recently in Italy, we brought up a similar topic, and our Italian counterparts explained why many Nigerians are imprisoned there.

Aiye, Vikings, Black Axe, and other cult-related activities have landed some Nigerians in prison in Italy. What then can you say in a circumstance when many Nigerians are imprisoned in Italy for the aforementioned reason? This does not imply that those in Ethiopia are also at fault. Many of them might not be guilty.

“Just because we all support immigration does not mean that you will travel to someone else’s nation and start committing crimes and horrors.

“A lot of Nigerians are committing atrocities in other nations, even though you can’t rule out the possibility that there are some persons whose offences may not be that serious and need to be investigated.

Many nations take the issue of unauthorised immigrants seriously and see it as a crime against the state. Most nations take it very seriously when someone enters their country without the right papers or when someone is smuggled in without any documentation.

“As a result, Ethiopia and the majority of Arab nations don’t have immigration-friendly policies. As a result, committing even a minor act as a migrant might have extremely serious repercussions, which is what is currently occurring in Ethiopia.

“The majority of Nigerians there commit one or two infractions, and they suffer tremendously. And not all of them have documents,” he told the Daily Post.

Osemene, who also serves as the Network’s National Secretary and Head of Programmes, bemoaned the fact that many Nigerians assume the identities of citizens of other nations in order to enter a country and only reveal their true identities when they encounter difficulties.

The majority of Nigerians do not enter Ethiopia as Nigerians, he continued. They assert that they are foreign nationals. Some claim to be from Ghana, while others claim to be from Mauritania and other such nations.

However, they will start claiming to be Nigerians when there is an issue. Since there is a lot of misinformation out there and Nigerians are prone to difficulties, we will keep raising awareness among them.

Osemene responded to the question of what the government ought to do by saying, “Well, I know that the Nigerian government has some sort of relationship with all these countries.

“They should activate it, look into it, and see how they can aid in the areas where they have bilateral agreements with Ethiopia and treaties they have signed. The government may use a treaty or a bilateral arrangement to allow persons convicted of serious crimes to return to Nigeria and complete their sentences there.

And for those who committed small infractions, Nigeria should take up their cases so that they might be absolved and allowed to return home because the punishments they are currently receiving are excessive.

“In other words, if Ethiopia and Nigeria have that kind of agreement, I’m recommending prisoner swaps. And certainly, there may be a prisoner exchange if they have people in Nigerian prisons as well.

“Those who committed common migration offences or offences related to migration should be released because movement is not a crime. Everyone has the freedom to migrate, whether legally or illegally, and is protected by the law so long as they haven’t committed any other crimes.

Former Katsina State House of Assembly member Shehu Yusuf also provided commentary, telling DAILY POST that “any Nigerian who commits crime outside of Nigeria should know that there are various laws guiding our country and other countries.”

“We do not condone Nigerians who conduct crimes outside of Nigeria, but there are laws and guidelines for convicted criminals as well.

“There are fundamental human rights that must be upheld in whatever country where a Nigerian is found guilty, according to international law.

“It’s excellent that this is taking place. The Nigerian embassy in Ethiopia ought to investigate the situation and determine the root of the issue.

“It’s not that Nigeria supports those who commit crimes in other nations, but when those individuals are blameless, the government need to step in and try to save them through all diplomatic channels. I suggest that prudence be practised at all times,” he stated.

DAILY POST