By Kofoworola Fakeye, JKNewsMedia Reporter
DETENTION WITHOUT trial ended for five Nigerians who spent almost a year in custody in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, as the federal government received them in Abuja on Thursday following their release.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that officials of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Commission for Refugees (NCR), Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (MIDPs), and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the returnees at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the young men were originally six in number and travelled by road from Sokoto to Abidjan to trade in phone parts before they were arrested under suspicious circumstances and detained at MACA prison without charge or trial.
“Their unfortunate circumstances was brought to my attention in April this year, and when I contacted our embassy in Abidjan, I was dismayed to discover that they had not even been notified of their arrest by the authorities there,” Odumegwu Ojukwu said.
The men, all in their 20s, were identified as Aliyu Malami, Sa’adu Bello, Nasiru Umar, Shamsu Abubakar, Lyman Mohammed and Usama Murtala.
The minister said Murtala became ill while in detention and received inadequate medical attention, which worsened his condition.
She said Murtala was released from prison with the others and taken to a critical care hospital for treatment by officials of the Nigerian High Commission (NHC), but the intervention came too late.
“He died the next morning, far from home and family, oblivious to the fact that his mother and siblings in Sokoto were excitedly preparing for his return,” the minister said.
Odumegwu Ojukwu said Murtala was buried the following day in a cemetery on the outskirts of Abidjan with his co-detainees and officials of the NHC, in accordance with Islamic rites and at the request of his parents.
She said Nigeria would later take up Murtala’s case with the Ivorian authorities.
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