Yoruba Nation activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (popularly called Sunday Igboho), yesterday expressed concern over alleged deaths and torture of some Nigerians in Egyptian prisons.
He urged President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) to intervene in the plight of Nigerians undergoing serious hardships in Egypt prison for alleged immigration offences.
Igboho raised the alarm through his spokesperson Olayomi Koiki in a statement The Nation obtained yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The statement reads: “I have been receiving calls in the last two weeks from some of these detained Nigerians and their relatives over degrading and inhuman treatment they are facing without any intervention from the Nigerian Embassy in Cairo.
“I’m pleading with President Bola Tinubu, who is compassionate and has a listening ear, to come to the rescue of these helpless Nigerians.
“While I don’t condone any form of illegality, I feel pained and worried over their pathetic situation. But timely intervention of our President at this crucial time can still save the detainees from further suffering and imminent deaths.”
“Unfavourable economic condition in Nigeria, which became aggravated during the eight-year tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, further forced many Nigerians who cannot afford to relocate to Europe and the United States of America due to excruciating hardship, to travel by roads to Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and other African countries in search of greener pastures.
“If successive governments at the federal level before the advent of Tinubu’s presidency had created an enabling socioeconomic atmosphere for individuals to explore their potentials and provided good governance, Nigerians in their thousands would not be leaving the country for uncertainty in foreign countries…
“The critical involvement of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), headed by Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Arewa, in the pitiable conditions of these categories of Nigerians is key to ensuring that the needful is done to address this problem. NiDCOM has been involved in protecting the fundamental human rights of Nigerians in Diaspora with accolades.”
