Nigeria Signed Ethiopia Prisoner Transfer Deal to Protect Citizens, Says Bianca Ojukwu
Oru Leonard
The Federal Government of Nigeria has defended its decision to sign a Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement with Ethiopia, describing the pact as a humanitarian and diplomatic measure aimed at protecting its citizens serving prison terms abroad.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said the agreement aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s citizen diplomacy policy, which prioritises the welfare of Nigerians in the diaspora.
Speaking on the agreement, the minister dismissed as false a list circulating on social media claiming to contain the names and number of Nigerian inmates in Ethiopian prisons. She said Nigeria does not have 136 prisoners in Ethiopia, contrary to the reports, and described some of the offences attributed to the inmates as fabricated.
According to her, the agreement allows convicted persons serving sentences in Ethiopia to return to Nigeria and complete their jail terms under conditions that respect their dignity and human rights.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu explained that negotiations for the agreement had been ongoing for years, largely due to challenges in obtaining accurate records of Nigerian inmates held in Ethiopia’s Kaliti and Aba Samuel maximum-security prisons.
She said many of the prisoners had repeatedly appealed to be transferred home because of harsh conditions, including poor feeding, inadequate healthcare, limited legal assistance, language barriers and restricted visitation rights.
“We have been working for so many years to get these prisoners back home to Nigeria. Essentially, what it means is that if prisoners have been sentenced in one country and they are serving a jail term there, they can return to their country of origin to serve out the sentence,” she said.
The minister revealed that four Nigerian inmates died while both countries were finalising the agreement, underscoring the urgency of the transfer arrangement.
She stressed that the deal does not amount to a pardon for the affected inmates, noting that one of its provisions prohibits Nigeria from granting amnesty or pardon to transferred prisoners without the consent of the sentencing country.
Addressing concerns over the ethnic composition of the inmates, Odumegwu-Ojukwu rejected claims that those affected were from a particular region of the country.
“The list trending online is a made-up list. Those covered by this agreement are 98 inmates. While many are from the Southeast, others are from the Southwest and South-South. Crime has no ethnicity. They are all Nigerian citizens in a foreign jail,” she said.
Ambassador Ojukwu added that the government remains committed to pursuing similar interventions for Nigerians facing difficult circumstances in prisons across other parts of the world.
Source: Statement by Dr. Magnus Eze, Special Assistant on Communication and New Media, Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
