On Friday, the federal government signed an agreement with Ethiopia to transfer more than 100 Nigerian prisoners back home to serve the remainder of their sentences.
The deal has been welcomed as a breakthrough, but negotiations had gone on for years.
Calls for such an agreement began in 2019 after Odemu Efe, a Nigerian inmate, died at the Kaliti Prisons in Addis Ababa as a result of alleged medical negligence.
Reports later surfaced alleging maltreatment of Nigerian inmates in Ethiopian prisons, with advocacy groups urging intervention from the government of Nigeria.
In March 2023, Chizoba Favor Eze, another Nigerian prisoner in Ethiopia, was reported dead following alleged brutalisation by prison officials.
Uchenna Nwanneneme was said to have died from tuberculosis in September of the same year reportedly after receiving little or no medical attention. Basil Lawrence Ilobi also died in custody.
NIGERIA PROPOSES MOU FOR PRISON TRANSFER AFTER DEATHS
In 2023, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairperson, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), expressed concern over the reported conditions of some Nigerian inmates in Ethiopia.
Dabiri-Erewa said the Nigerian mission in Ethiopia proposed an MoU from the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) on the transfer of sentenced persons to Nigeria via the Ethiopian authorities to complete their respective jail terms in Nigeria, and were awaiting a response from Ethiopia.
In November 2023, during an interactive session with Victor Umeh, then-chairman, senate committee on diaspora affairs and non-governmental organisations, Dabiri-Erewa had hinted that talks around the MoU began during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Buhari appointed Dabiri-Erewa as NiDCOM chair in 2018. She was confirmed the following year.
She said progress on the MoU stalled after Ethiopia granted an amnesty to Nigerian prisoners in 2019 but later found that the pardoned inmates went back to peddling drugs and carrying out fraudulent acts — offences they were previously jailed for. They were re-arrested.
Umeh assured NiDCOM of the senate’s support to the commission in achieving its set objectives.
A month before meeting with Dabiri-Erewa, Umeh and Simon Mwadkwon, then-senate minority leader, raised a motion calling for an urgent investigation into the reported killings and maltreatment of over 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia.
In December 2023, Umeh raised the issue on the senate floor again, urging the federal government to intervene.
In 2024, a high court in Abuja ordered the ministry of foreign affairs and NiDCOM ensure the return of detained Nigerians in Ethiopian prisons.
DEAL SIGNED IN 2026
The deal between both countries was finally signed on June 12 by Lateef Fagbemi, attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, and Hanna Arayaselassie, his Ethiopian counterpart, in the presence of senior officials from both governments.
Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, minister of foreign affairs, said the process involved negotiations, judicial vetting and a final ratification.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu said the bilateral agreement was rooted in the principles of humanity and justice and cooperation between Nigeria and Ethiopia.
For the prisoners, it looks like a big relief that they would be returning home at last.
(Cable)
