The Nigerian Senate has asked the Federal High Court, Abuja, to dismiss a suit alleging that the Ethiopian government lacks budgetary allocation to cater for the feeding and welfare of detained Nigerians.
The Chief Legislative Officer, National Assembly, Directorate of Legal Services, Usman Abdulhameed, filed a counter affidavit seeking the dismissal of a suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/303/2024 and filed by a Lagos-based businessman, Mmaduagwu Sunday, and two others, against Nigeria in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senate, the House of Representatives and others.
Nairametrics previously reported that the applicant stated he sued on behalf of the Nigerians allegedly imprisoned and detained in Kaliti, Ethiopian prison.
The applicant had said the Nigerian inmates were informed by Ethiopian prison officials that their government had asked the Nigerian embassy to come and take them back to Nigeria as “they have no budget to feed them.”
The Nigerian inmates “have no money, no food, no firewood and no medicine,” the suit alleged while seeking an order compelling the federal government to receive and return Nigerians imprisoned and detained in Kaliti Ethiopia prisons “consequent upon the decision and declaration of Ethiopian Governments that they have no budget for their food, firewood, medicine and any other form of welfare and on the face of their call for Nigeria to take them back to Nigeria.”
Senate Kicks
But in Abdulhameed’s counter affidavit dated May 9, 2024, and seen by Nairametrics, he urged the court to hold that the claims of the applicant are false.
According to him, the Senate has already probed the alleged incarceration and maltreatment of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia but discovered the claims to be false.
He urged the court to dismiss the suit
He stated
“The 3rd Respondent (Senate) is not aware of any communication from the Ethiopian Government to the Nigerian Embassy requesting the Nigerian government “to take their people back.”
“That the 3rd Respondent only became aware of an unfounded news going round on the social media that some Nigerians in Ethiopia were allegedly incarcerated and maltreated.
“That the 3rd Respondent indeed directed its committees on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs to investigate social media reports alleging Incarceration and maltreatment of 250 Nigerians in Ethiopia.
” However, even by the Applicant’s Exhibit KLPA 2, these allegations were found to be false.
“That I know as a fact that the Applicant has no genuine cause of action against the 3rd Respondent.
“That I know as a fact that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss this case.”
What transpired in court
The matter was fixed for hearing today but the court did not sit.
The case was subsequently adjourned to May 20 for a hearing.
More insights
- It has been widely reported that over 200 Nigerians are languishing in Ethiopian prisons, some serving prison terms, while others are detained.
- The suit alleges the Federal Government is not doing the needful to take care of its citizens.
- But NIDCOM had, in 2023, said several Nigerians were languishing in Ethiopian prisons for drug trafficking offences.
