Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has declared that none of those who claimed to have been unjustly imprisoned in Togo has officially contacted the agency.
The agency, however, explained that it had reached out to the Nigerian embassy in the Francophone nation to get details.
In a statement to The Guardian following the allegations of maltreatment of Nigerians trying to transit through Togolese airport on social media, Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, NIDCOM, Abuja, Abdur-Rahman Balogun explained that the commission cannot be reacting to all sorts of “things on the social media” without the victims filing formal complaints.
His words: “NIDCOM has reached out to the Ambassador over there to get the details. The embassy is on top of the matter to find out some of the reported cases.
“Unfortunately, none of the said victims has formally reached out to us, it was only a gist circulating on social media. And as a responsible Federal Government agency, we cannot be reacting to all sorts of things on social media without the affected or concerned contacting us with evidence on our official email, admin@nidcom.gov.ng or reaching out to my chairman or my unit for clarification.
“So, we are awaiting the feedback from our embassy officials in Togo to be able to come up with the necessary position.”
Balogun added that if truly, Nigerians travelling through Togo were imprisoned unjustifiably, they are at best travellers and not Diasporans, which falls under their mandate.
Recall that a Nigerian had narrated on X, how on November 8, 2023, himself and his friend traveling to Canada, and decided to board from Togo owing to the fact that Ethiopia Airlines fare was cheaper from Togo, but got arrested and imprisoned on allegations of false travel documents.
“Before we got to the airline stand (Ethiopia Airlines), we were called by some of the airport officials. They asked us to show them our travel documents, which we did.
“They delayed us for hours to the point that we missed our flights, and they eventually said our visas were fake. They kept checking and couldn’t give evidence to back up their claims. We explained that we got our visas through an agent and explained the process at which we got the visas, but they proved adamant.
“After a series of arguments, they also came up with another claim that our passports were fake. At that point, we knew they hated us because we were Nigerians. Even if we were not sure about our visas, we were 100 per cent sure of our passports because we went to the Immigration office in Ilorin to obtain our passports, and we followed the right procedures.
“The funniest part was that these airport officials were asking for $600 to bail ourselves. We refused, and they took us to the police station. We got to the police station that evening with the hope that they were taking us to the place where they would do a proper investigation.
“On getting to the police station, they locked us in the cell, but before we were eventually locked in the cell, we dragged them and requested that they take us to the Nigerian Embassy in Togo so that they could verify all our documents, most especially our passports, but the police refused,” they claimed.
The victims narrated that the Togolese police officials beat them mercilessly, dragged them inside the cell and forcefully collected $200 in their possession.
After five days of dehumanising treatment at the cell, they alleged that they were sent to prison, where they met many other Nigerians who are also claiming innocence, but languishing in detention.
