Court orders foreign affairs ministry, NIDCOM to repatriate Nigerians imprisoned in Ethiopia

A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the ministry of foreign affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to bring back about 270 Nigerians currently imprisoned or detained in Kaliti prison, Ethiopia.

Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, granted the order of mandamus while delivering judgment in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2024.

The suit, instituted by Sunday Mmaduagwu, Henry Anyanwu and Leonard Okafor, on behalf of Nigerians imprisoned in Ethiopia prison  claimed the inmates were being subjected to poor living conditions after the authorities declared that it had no budget to take care of them.

The applicant had joined NIDCOM, ministry of foreign affairs, senate, house of representatives, Federal Republic of Nigeria and the attorney-general of federation (AGF) as 1st to 6th respondents respectively.

The motion was brought pursuant to Order II, Rules 1, 2 & 3 of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009 and Sections 6 (6), 34 (1), 35 (1), (4), and (6), 36 and 46 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The applicants had sought an order compelling the 1st & 2nd respondents to receive and return Nigerians imprisoned, and detained in Kaliti Ethiopia prison “since the Ethiopian government declared that they have no budget for their food, firewood, medicine and any other form of welfare”.

In the affidavit supporting the suit, Mmaduagwu deposed that his first cousin, Remigius Anikwe, is one of those held in Ethiopia.

The affidavits also claimed that Anyanwu and Okafor have relatives – Chinedu Michael Anyanwu and Livinus Edochie – in the prison facility.

Mmaduagwu said when he visited the prison to see his cousin, he met over 270 Nigerians arrested and detained in the facility.

“Some young Nigerians who were on transit with visa are reported to have been arrested, dispossessed of their money and valuable properties and false witnesses suborned to testify against them in a foreign language,” Mmaduagwu stated further in the affidavits.

“Many are detained and denied the opportunity of proper hearing by any court and till date; they do not know the reason for their arrest.

“They are also denied access to their families, the outside world and even the services of a lawyer, making their family assume they are dead.

“Some of them had to admit offences they did not commit after prolonged torture by the prison officials.

“A lot of them are dying and they were informed by the prison officials that the Ethiopian government has asked the Nigerian Embassy to come and take their people back having no budget to feed them and provide medical aid.

“Every week, about two or three deaths are recorded. They have not been buried neither have their corpse been brought to Nigeria.”

Mmaduagwu, who said that all the respondents were aware of the prisoner’s plights, prayed the court to grant their relief.

SENATE’S OBJECTION TO THE SUIT

Objecting to the suit in a counter affidavit, the senate asked the court to dismiss the suit.

Usman Abdulhameed, chief legislative officer of the national assembly, said the senate probed the alleged incarceration and maltreatment of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia but discovered the claims to be “false”.

“The 3rd respondent (senate) is not aware of any communication from the Ethiopian government to the Nigerian embassy requesting the Nigerian government to take their people back,” Abdulhameed said.

“That the 3rd respondent only became aware of an unfounded news going round on social media that some Nigerians in Ethiopia were allegedly incarcerated and maltreated.

“That the 3rd respondent indeed directed its committees on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs to investigate social media reports alleging Incarceration and maltreatment of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia.

“However, even by the applicant’s Exhibit KLPA 2, these allegations were found to be false.

“That I know as a fact that the applicant has no genuine cause of action against the 3rd respondent.

“That I know as a fact that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss this case.”

JUDGMENT

In a judgment delivered on November 14, Ekwo said, “I find that the applicants have made a credible case for this court to issue an order of mandamus to compel the 1st and 2nd respondents to perform their statutory functions and I so hold”.

The judge held that the “motives of the applicants were not unreasonable as it is rationally expected that a citizen of a country who is abroad and who needs the intervention of his/her country of origin will expect the requisite succour from the home country when the occasion arises for such”.

“The 1st and 2nd respondents cannot be allowed to argue their way out of their respective statutory functions,” he said.

He further held that the applicants had made a “compelling case” in the suit that Nigerian citizens who were detained and imprisoned in Kaliti Prison, Ethiopia, by the Ethiopian government required the intervention of NODOM and the ministry.

Although the judge ordered the foreign affairs ministry and NIDCOM to receive and return the imprisoned Nigerians home, he refused to grant the applicants’ 1st relief seeking a declaration that the detained Nigerians’ rights had been breached by the respondents.