<\/p>\n
The Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to facilitate the repatriation of approximately 270 Nigerians imprisoned or detained in Kaliti Prison, Ethiopia.
\nDelivering the judgment on November 14 in suit number FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/303\/2024, Justice Inyang Ekwo issued an order of mandamus, compelling the two agencies to fulfill their statutory duties and bring the detainees back home.
\nThe suit was initiated by three Nigerians\u2014Sunday Mmaduagwu, Henry Anyanwu, and Leonard Okafor\u2014on behalf of the imprisoned citizens.
\nThey alleged that the detainees were subjected to inhumane living conditions after Ethiopian authorities declared that they lacked the budget to care for the inmates.
\nThe applicants claimed the prisoners faced starvation, lack of medical care, and restricted access to legal representation, with some dying due to neglect. “Every week, about two or three deaths are recorded.
\n“They have not been buried, nor have their corpses been returned to Nigeria,” Mmaduagwu stated in his affidavit.
\nThe suit also highlighted cases of arbitrary arrests, where Nigerians traveling through Ethiopia were allegedly dispossessed of their valuables and falsely accused of crimes.
\nThe applicants named NIDCOM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Attorney General of the Federation as respondents.
\nThey sought a court order mandating the government to intervene and repatriate the detainees.
\nIn a counter-affidavit, the Senate dismissed the claims as \u201cunfounded\u201d and asked the court to throw out the case.
\nUsman Abdulhameed, Chief Legislative Officer of the National Assembly, argued that investigations by its committees on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs had found no evidence of incarceration or maltreatment of Nigerians in Ethiopia.
\n\u201cThe Senate is not aware of any communication from the Ethiopian government requesting Nigeria to repatriate its citizens,\u201d Abdulhameed asserted.
\nJustice Ekwo, however, ruled in favor of the applicants, stating that they had presented a compelling case.
\nHe criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NIDCOM for failing to act, emphasizing that it is the duty of the government to protect its citizens abroad.
\n\u201cThe motives of the applicants are not unreasonable. It is rationally expected that a citizen of a country who needs intervention abroad will receive the requisite succor from their home country,\u201d Ekwo stated.
\nThe court ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NIDCOM to take immediate steps to repatriate the detained Nigerians. However, it declined to declare that the detainees’ fundamental rights had been violated.
\nThis judgment has been widely regarded as a wake-up call for Nigerian authorities to prioritize the welfare of citizens abroad.
\nAs the government gears up to comply with the court’s directive, families of the detainees hope this will mark the end of their loved ones\u2019 suffering in Ethiopian detention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to facilitate the repatriation of approximately 270 Nigerians imprisoned or detained in Kaliti Prison, Ethiopia. Delivering the judgment on November 14 in suit number FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/303\/2024, Justice Inyang Ekwo issued an order of mandamus, compelling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[554,335,553,98,195,552,551],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime","tag-court-orders","tag-diaspora","tag-ethiopia","tag-government","tag-nigerians","tag-prison","tag-repatriation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":936,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}