The House
of Representatives, yesterday, has condemned the ill-treatment and
discrimination against Nigerians living in South Africa, stressing that at
least more than 409 were currently serving jail terms in the country.
Chairman
of the House Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed this in a
statement issued after the committee’s visit to two prisons in South Africa.
She
described the increasing number of Nigerians in foreign prisons as
“ridiculously embarrassing.”
Dabiri-Erewa,
representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency in Lagos State, who visited the
prisons alongside two members of the committee, Ajibola Famurewa and Umaru
Shidanfi, consular officers of the Nigerian Embassy and executives of the
Nigerian Union in South Africa, disclosed that over 400,000 Nigerians were
currently living in South Africa.
However,
during her interaction with some inmates, the lawmaker explained that some of
them confessed that they had been denied their freedom, despite completing
their jail terms.
“The
inmates complained of extreme discrimination by the prison authorities in South
Africa. The law enforcement officers always maltreat citizens of Nigeria for
unjustifiable reasons.
“Sometimes,
the authorities tore into pieces their Nigerian passports among several other
allegations and refused to grant them bail, while others from other countries
that committed similar bailable offence were granted bail,” she added.
Vanguard.
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