** Nigerians awaiting deportation were kept in unconventional centres (dungeon) in Lagos for about seven months.

** While in the dungeon, they were poorly fed and utterly dehumanised. In the process, it was gathered, 29 of them died in the camp.

** “While we were in detention, they fed us only once a day and even when the food was brought, it usually tasted bad. If you look at us, you will see that we were treated badly,”- Mr. John Irabor, who hails from Benin, in Edo State, is one of the deportees

Report By Sun News Online
July 31, 2013

During the General Ibrahim Babangida regime, the country was once agog, following the deportation of Professor Wilmot, a Jamaican, who taught at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The professor had lived in the country for years and married a Nigerian but following what the government perceived as his “satanic verse,” as it were, he was shipped out of the country. This is normal.

Indeed, it’s common for nations to deport citizens of other countries, if such people contravene the law but it’s seldom heard that a citizen of a country is forcefully taken from one state in the country to another, no matter the circumstance. Surprisingly, this is happening in Nigeria.

As it stands, it appears that non-indigene residents in Lagos State run the risk of being abducted by agents of the government, detained under dehumanising conditions for several months and finally deported in the wee hours to another city. It has happened before and may happen again. At two instances, Nigerians have been arrested in Lagos and ‘loaded’ in a trailer, escorted by armed policemen and taken across the Niger and dumped in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State. It did not matter whether they hail from Anambra State or not but that is the most likely place you may find yourself if you are unlucky to be grabbed in the streets of Lagos by agents of the state government, hunting non-indigenes.

Recently, the Lagos State Government deported about 67 persons from Lagos to Onitsha. It was the second time, in less than one year, that officials of the state government are sneaking into Onitsha, in the ungodly hours, to dump people picked from the streets of Lagos. Specifically, the state had, on September 18, 2012, dumped over 100 citizens, made up of children, women, senior citizens and physically challenged people at about 4am under the Upper Iweka Flyover in Onitsha.

Also, during the administration of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State, there was a protest about citizens of the state being dropped in the middle of the night at Ibadan, the state capital. Ogun State indigenes had as well tasted the bitter pill.

Last week’s deportation was done under the cloak of darkness. While residents of the city were sleeping, a truck loaded with ‘human cargo’ arrived at about 2.30am, accompanied by a detachment of policemen. After offloading the consignment, as it were, the truck and its escort melted into the night.

What greeted the residents at dusk was a congregation of people in dire straits. Sources disclosed that prior to their deportation last week, they had been detained in unconventional centres for about seven months. And while in the dungeon, they were poorly fed and utterly dehumanised. In the process, it was gathered, 29 of them died in the camp. As at the time the surviving ones arrived Onitsha, they had become walking corpses. Looking frail and disheveled, they painted the ugly picture of death or people, who walked through the valley of the shadow of death but survived by the skin of their teeth.

Why would Lagos State “deport” Nigerians? Why would the state government dump the people so deported at Onitsha?

In 2012, when people were first dumped in Onitsha, Governor Peter Obi had stated: “Investigations have shown that most of them (those ‘deported’ from Lagos) are not from Anambra State but were dropped here. I am going to make a report to the Federal Government that Nigerians cannot be refugees in Nigeria. It is a dangerous trend.”

“We have seen a situation where Anambrarians, working in other parts of the country are sent packing, even when they have served faithfully where they were.

“We have not been doing the same thing. In schools, we have most of them from other states. Even teachers and students, most of them are in our school system where we offer free education benefit.”

But if Obi’s threat to make a representation to the Federal Government on the issue yielded any result, it is yet to be seen. Barely 10 months after, there was a repeat of this, as 67 people were dumped overnight at Onitsha.

Last year, the Lagos State Government denied involvement in the deportation saga. Last year, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba, had said: “We don’t query where you come from or what has brought you from wherever you come from. We always tell the people that we have the responsibility to take care of whoever is here, provided you are ready to go along with us, in terms of following our laws and in terms of the legitimate things you do and by that I mean legitimate business, without having criminal intentions. It is whoever does not have the intention of living with our laws that will have problem with the government.

In the same vein, Ibirogba, last week, denied that the Lagos State Government deported 67 people from Lagos. He said: “We did not deport anybody. By the constitution of Nigeria, every body has a right to live in any part of the country but we have been emphasising that people must live within the law. However, it is not true.”

If the Lagos State Government did not do it, who did? That is the question, agitating many minds across the country. While the Lagos State Government is denying deporting anybody from its shores, the deportees are singing a different song, a song of pains, agony and disillusionment. The deportees insist that they were bundled out of Lagos by officials of the state government.

One of them, who gave her name as Chima, stated that she was picked up on her way home. Her words: “I was on my way home to Okokomaiko in Lagos when a group of young men accosted me and took me to a place I do not know. When I got there, I met these people and over 29 of whom died in detention.”

While Chima is Igbo and from South East, there are other deportees, who are from other states outside Igboland. Take this: Mr. John Irabor, who hails from Benin, in Edo State, among other ‘foreigners,’ was dumped in Onitsha last week, even when, according to him, he neither committed any crime nor charged to court for any crime.

“While we were in detention, they fed us only once a day and even when the food was brought, it usually tasted bad. If you look at us, you will see that we were treated badly,” Irabor lamented.

Putting the matter in perspective, the National Coordinator of Ebonyi Consultative Forum (ECF), Onowu Obini C. Obini, said Nigeria was on a dangerous bend, adding that the founding fathers of the country would be turning with anger in their graves.

“A few things could be deduced from the ugly development. One, it is a sign of failure on the part of government because they cannot provide for the citizenry in spite of the stupendous wealth of the country. The leadership is not creative but seems to be chuffed with the disheartening state of affairs. Two, it shows that human dignity has been eroded in the psyche of the people. The moral temperature of society is unhealthy, hence citizens are treated like such lowly animals as donkeys,” he stated.

Obini argued: “Population is an asset of inestimable value. Assuming that the ‘deportees’ were jobless, as alleged, it behoves the leadership to create the enabling environment so that they can achieve their full potentials, help themselves and the country at the end of the day. But by this deportation, the constitution is thoroughly breached, even as the nation’s fragile unity is further buffeted.

“Surely, Nigeria is making itself a laughing stock in the comity of nations. However, it provides Ndigbo an opportunity for introspection or self-searching. And as long as injustice is perpetrated in the land, we will continue to grope in the dark.”

But what is the position of the law on this matter? Does the Lagos State Government have the right to accost people on the streets, hold them in captivity for several months before dumping them in a place, which is not necessarily their place of origin?

Providing answers to these questions, Mr. Chukwuanugo Ejikeme averred that deportation from one part of the country to another was an aberration, stressing that Lagos erred in every material particular. He argued that such acts would make people lose faith in the polity. Maintaining that the action of the Lagos government smacked of impunity, Ejikeme said: “Under our constitution, no state government has the right to deport. You cannot deport somebody from one part of the country to another; deportation is from one country to another. If any Nigerian resident in any part of the country commits a crime, he ought to be tried and if found guilty, punished within the state. The action of Lagos State Government is condemnable and a complete violation of our constitution

Read More
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/arrested-in-lagos-deported-to-onitsha/

Copy and paste thing..............


Fashola and AC Governors are busy developing South-west with massive infrastructure here and there, haters are hating.

Many Schizophrenic patients

After all, its not only the hausa people that are threating the existence of this country!!

That thin thread joining this country is getting to its yield point!!
Some people are still adding fire, making this thin thread to become more elastic!!
May GOD help us

29 people died in Fashola's concentration camps. They were detained only because they were/are poor. Very very sad. May God deliver us from satanic tyrants.

The only reason why I like Fashola is because all the people that hates him are ibos.

#Afam4eva & Sexkillz come hide my post again. Bigots!

[size=13pt]Why not simply leave this concentration camps and move back to your Japan [/size]

From the stories that have been coming out about detentions,displacement,relocations and deportations of the weak,it truly sound like the way the nazis started their horrific escapades.

pandriod: The only reason why I like Fashola is because all the people that hates him are ibos.

#Afam4eva & Sexkillz come hide my post again. Bigots!

You got that right. They hate SW and APC so much they can't even move to PDP controlled states they love so much. They keep running away from PDP controlled states and running for better life in AC/APC controlled states.

Bunch of haters and hypocrites.

Wealthy Igbos in Lagos should watch it. Yorubas will kidnap them, send them to Fasola camp, seize their phones, and go back and confiscate their properties.

omo-Yoruba:
Wealthy Igbos in Lagos should watch it. Yorubas will kidnap them, send them to Fasola camp, seize their phones, and go back and confiscate their properties.

Paranoia is killing you softly.........

omo-Yoruba:
Wealthy Igbos in Lagos should watch it. Yorubas will kidnap them, send them to Fasola camp, seize their phones, and go back and confiscate their properties.

"The ibos solution".

Where is the voice of Prof Soyinka and Femi Falana in this whole Fashola madness? Are they now deaf and dumb? Why are we not seeing the same speed with which they spoke in the Rivers crisis? Smh

Hahahahahahaha. Cry baby. Bros, you have bigger problems in your hands and you are busy chasing after Fashola.

APC has been registered oo! The jobs of you and your ilk are on the line! You gotta rev up your rhetorics, perhaps that would alter the number of pple who pay attention to your idiotic and incoherent rants.

Soon enough, you'd be thrown unto the gutter from whence you came, so you can resume with your previous job of scouring used plastics and scrap metals off of refuse dumps.




God bless APC and God bless her suporters!

Is there anyone that hates fashola that is not ibo!? Prove me wrong and win $1000 FREE cash!

Is obvious that some ppl are envious and jelous of the Igbo race.
I'm proud to be Chimezie and not Wasiu or Mohammed.
Fashola can not do more than Awolowo did,yet Igbos are waxing stronger day in day out.

What is all this nonsense about hatred for Fashola?You all haters know what? do your worst.

[size=38pt]Again, Is there anyone that hates fashola that is not ibo? Prize money increased to $2000 to anyone that proves me wrong. [/size]

It is unbelievable that some people who have sold their soul to the DEVIL see nothing wrong in the death of 29 Nigerians in Fashola's concentration camps. Yet, these are the same people who call themselves 'progressives'. They care less about the extra-judicial killings of Nigerians. All they care about is converting Nigeria to Tinubu's conquered territory so we can have concentration camps nationwide. God forbid.

Sincere 9gerian: Where is the voice of Prof Soyinka and Femi Falana in this whole Fashola madness? Are they now deaf and dumb? Why are we not seeing the same speed with which they spoke in the Rivers crisis? Smh

I am surprise too he hasn't spoken about the atrocities yet.His voice might give urgency to the horrors.It will make it clear to the primitive tribalists,especially the ones on this forum that what is going on is totally unacceptable,unexplainable and unjustifiable.

pandriod: Is there anyone that hates fashola that is not ibo!? Prove me wrong and win $1000 FREE cash!

sharap!!!
I hate him and I no be Igbo!

Fashola is a very big disapointment and a very big disgrace to the SAN title.I wonder why our governors and senators are still keeping silent over this.This is far worse than the situation in River state which the opposition were protesting against.

It saddened my heart for a newspaper to involve itself in selective journalism. @OP, the news you quoted actually was Sun Newspapers fake news, owned and managed by Orji Uzor Kalu. Am very ashamed that becos you wanted to score cheap political advantage, you intermittently used Sun Newspaper as a point of reference. The newspaper in question is owned by an easterner, with an eastern agenda.

Even the owner whom I suppose every tom and harry should stone to death for shortchanging the future of Abians, has become the mouthpiece of Ndigbos. No other newspaper actually reported that people died in detention, and this should be a figment of some people's imagination.

Infact, the useless +rji Kalu has almost all his businesses concentrated in Lagos. Why cnt he take those businesses back to Abia to develop his people?. Some people are not shameful at all

antartica:

I am surprise too he hasn't spoken about the atrocities yet.His voice might give urgency to the horrors.It will make it clear to the primitive tribalists,especially the ones on this forum that what is going on is totally unacceptable,unexplainable and unjustifiable.

He has been pretending he does not know. I will send him a personal message to that effect.

omo-Yoruba:


He has been pretending he does not know. I will send him a personal message to that effect.

Please do.We need a voice of neutral and generally accepted rational nigerian on this.

Sincere 9gerian: Where is the voice of Prof Soyinka and Femi Falana in this whole Fashola madness? Are they now deaf and dumb? Why are we not seeing the same speed with which they spoke in the Rivers crisis? Smh

u fool, before u come here and spew nonsense, read some history, the prof soyinka u hate so much spent 22 months in jail for supporting biafra during the war,

Some of the response on this thread is shameful which goes to show that politics in Nigeria is primordial,selfish and short-sighted.
Imagine if these was happening in a PDP state,GEJ would have been vilified.
Anyway, let me see how fashola will become president or vice president in this country.
All these brain farts of his will come back to hunt him.

ebamma: u fool, before u come here and spew nonsense, read some history, the prof soyinka u hate so much spent 22 months in jail for supporting biafra during the war,

WHO WE GO ASK?

Sincere 9gerian: 29 people died in Fashola's concentration camps. They were detained only because they were/are poor. Very very sad. May God deliver us from satanic tyrants.

It very bad indeed; a dark era in the history of Lagos State, nay, Nigeria.

The sad thing about this saga is that people can be missing for months, while their relative scour the whole country looking for them, wasting precious time, money and emotion, only to later find out they were kidnapped by agents of a state governor. The issue of the dead is even sadder; one can only imagine the state of relatives whose loved ones left home and never came back simply because they dies at one of of these illegal detention centers run by Fashole and his cohorts.

The Fderal Government and National Assembly need to conduct an inquest into these. It is not simply a matter of constitutional breach, criminality is definitely involved now. People are alleged to have died in these concentration camps, a proper investigation need to be done, and those found culpable should face the courts - the courts their unfortunate victims were denied.

PointB:


It very bad indeed; a dark era in the history of Lagos State, nay, Nigeria.

The sad thing about this saga is that people can be missing for months, while their relative scour the whole country looking for them, wasting precious time, money and emotion, only to later find out they were kidnapped by agents of a state governor. The issue of the dead is even sadder; one can only imagine the state of relatives whose loved ones left home and never came back simply because they dies at one of of these illegal detention centers run by Fashole and his cohorts.

The Fderal Government and National Assembly need to conduct an inquest into these. It is not simply a matter of constitutional breach, criminality is definitely involved now. People are alleged to have died in these concentration camps, a proper investigation need to be done, and those found culpable should face the courts - the courts their unfortunate victims were denied.

dalu nwanne

a lot of our people are not even beginning to wrap their minds around what happened
people died in detention without trial and without court process
this is a grievous crime!
let's see what the FG will do. btw who is the current attorney general?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krxMnE_0O0Q

HEIL HITLER!

*snapping my feet and raising my right hand*
FASHOLA. . .YOU ARE THE MAN!

BIAFRANS should take shame and stop acquiring ABANDONED PROPERTIES ALL OVER THE WORLD. . .HABA!

Imaging being deported. . .FROM ANOTHER STATE WITHIN YOUR OWN COUNTRY!

Hmmmmmm! THIS IS IT!

IT IS FINISHED!

If na BRITISH AIRWAYS TROWAY UNA AZZZES FROM PLANE NA. . . UNA GO DEY SIGN PETITION LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER!

Truth be told. . . A NUISANCE REMAINS A NUISANCE. . . regardless of location!

YES KE!