Ethiopia prisoner transfer deal reflects Tinubu’s citizen diplomacy policy – FG

The Federal Government has said the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement with Ethiopia, aimed at repatriating convicted Nigerians, aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and its citizen diplomacy policy.

 

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, disclosed this in a statement issued on Friday by her Special Assistant on Communication and New Media, Magnus Eze.

 

She described the agreement as a major diplomatic milestone that prioritises the welfare of Nigerians abroad and demonstrates the government’s commitment to assisting citizens facing challenges in foreign countries.

 

The minister also dismissed as false a list circulating on social media claiming to contain the names and number of Nigerian inmates in Ethiopian prisons.

 

According to her, Nigeria does not have 136 inmates in Ethiopian prisons as claimed in the reports, while some of the offences attributed to the prisoners are unfounded.

 

Odumegwu-Ojukwu said the Federal Government remains committed to bringing the inmates back to Nigeria to serve the remainder of their sentences under more humane conditions.

 

She explained that efforts to secure the transfer of the prisoners had been ongoing for several years, with challenges arising from difficulties in obtaining accurate records of Nigerians incarcerated in Ethiopia.

 

The minister said the affected inmates are currently being held at Kaliti and Aba Samuel maximum-security prisons.

 

“Essentially, if prisoners have been sentenced in one country and they are serving a jail term in that country, they can return to their state or country of origin to serve out the sentence.

 

“This is important because the inmates in those prisons have been agitating for so many years to return to Nigeria to complete their jail terms.

 

“This is in view of their precarious living conditions, health challenges, inadequate medical facilities, poor feeding, denial of visitation rights, inadequate legal services and language barriers, among other things,” she said.

 

Odumegwu-Ojukwu revealed that four Nigerian inmates died while both countries were finalising the transfer agreement.

 

“Some of these young people that I saw when I went into that prison could have been anybody’s brother. So, should they be faced with such a precarious situation for one mistake?” she asked.

 

The minister, however, dismissed suggestions that the prisoners would be released after returning to Nigeria, stressing that the agreement does not grant them freedom.

 

She also rejected claims that the inmates are from a particular region of the country, insisting that criminality has no ethnic or regional identity.

 

According to her, one of the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries prohibits either side from granting pardon or amnesty to transferred prisoners without the consent of the sentencing country.

 

“The list trending online is a made-up list. We don’t have 136 inmates in Aba Samuel and Kaliti prisons. Those that are the subject of this agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons are 98 inmates in those prisons.

 

“A lot of them are from the South-East. There are also those from the South-West and the South-South. Crime has no ethnicity. All these people are Nigerian citizens in a foreign jail,” she said.