Investigations by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) have shown that almost 99% of Nigerians languishing in Ethiopian prisons are there for drug trafficking offences.
This startling figure was revealed by the Chairman/CEO of the Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa in an interview on Friday on a Nigerian television station.
The NIDCOM boss, who was reacting to a viral video claiming that 250 Nigerians are languishing in Ethiopian prisons and that they were going to be killed, dismissed the video, adding that the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to intervene in the matter, and weighing the possibility of a prisoner swap.
“Sometime ago, the Nigerian Mission in Ethiopia had a long conversation with the Ethiopian authorities, and they got amnesty for every Nigerian in that prison, so they left,” Dabiri-Erewa said.
“They let them go, and they came back to the country, but guess what? A whole lot of them returned again, committed the same offense—drugs—and then they were arrested.
“Some Nigerians did a video and just said 250 Nigerians are in Ethiopian prisons and they are going to kill them. I’m telling you categorically that the video was a lie, and that’s part of the problem. Anyone can do a video.
“That is the subject of a Senate investigation. I was in the Senate, and I believe that next week the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs, Senator Victor Umeh is going to present his report.
“So I don’t want to go ahead with what he is going to present, but here is what we told the Senate; that is a lie; we don’t have 250 Nigerians in Ethiopean Prison. I gave them the list of Nigerians; less than 150 Nigerians are in one prison, and 99 percent of them are there for drugs”, she added.
She also urged Nigerian asylum seekers to leave legitimately and with proper documentation to avoid unpleasant consequences, adding that in light of a growing number of Nigerians migrating out of the country, a phenomenon locally referred to as “japa”, it was imperative for them to do so legally.