A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued an order compelling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, to repatriate over 270 Nigerians currently detained at Kaliti Prison in Ethiopia.
The decision follows a complaint regarding the dire conditions in the prison, where inmates have reportedly suffered severe mistreatment due to a lack of resources, including food, medicine, and proper legal representation.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in his judgment on November 14, ruled in favor of a mandamus application filed by three Nigerians—Sunday Mmaduagwu, Henry Anyanwu, and Leonard Okafor—on behalf of their relatives and other detainees. The applicants had sued NIDCOM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Senate, House of Representatives, and other governmental bodies, urging for intervention in the case of over 270 Nigerians detained in Ethiopia without trial or access to basic human rights protections.
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The court concluded that the Ethiopian government had declared it lacked the budget to continue caring for the Nigerian detainees, prompting the ruling to bring them back to Nigeria. The applicants outlined distressing accounts of torture, mistreatment, and wrongful detention, with some inmates reportedly admitting to crimes they did not commit after enduring severe abuse.
In the ruling, Justice Ekwo emphasized that the Nigerian government had a statutory duty to ensure the welfare of its citizens abroad, noting that the respondents—NIDCOM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs—could not shirk their responsibilities. The court’s decision has been hailed as a victory for Nigerian citizens detained abroad, asserting the right of citizens to expect consular and diplomatic support in times of need.
However, the court did not grant the request for a declaration that the detained Nigerians’ rights had been violated, though it instructed the Nigerian authorities to take immediate action to repatriate the prisoners. The ruling comes amidst reports of multiple deaths among the detainees, attributed to neglect, with families left in uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones.
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