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.
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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.
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“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.
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