*Say absence of key officials adding to their woes
By our correspondent, in Abuja
More than five years after they were allegedly abducted and imprisoned in the Republic of Cameroon, 10 Nigerian professors have called on the Nigerian government to do all it could to ensure their prompt release.
The affected professors in a statement issued on their behalf by their lawyer, Joseph Awah Fru said their prolonged detention was due to the non-appearance of crucial officials from the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Cameroonian High Commissioner, the UNHCR Coordinator, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Awah Fru further said already the Nigerian asylum seekers in their petition to the House of Representatives, pleaded with the House to among others, cause the Nigerian Government to take action and implement the rulings in the three judgments of the Federal High Court of Abuja in 2019, ordering their release and compensation.
He charged all those who have one role or the other to play to expedite action so as to effect the freedom of the academics whom he said were not criminals but university teachers who have over the years contributed to the growth of the country in their own rights for over 30 years before their ordeal.
“We are encouraged because these petitioners, who are university professors and lecturers, have sustained the academic pyramid in Nigeria for the last 30 years – and that is a whole generation and counting. Beginning as students, excelling in their various fields and then ending up at the highest levels of academia in their various fields, wherein they crystalized innovation, industry, entrepreneurship and promise in all sectors of natural and social sciences.
“These petitioners have faith in Nigeria and her institutions. It is this faith that brought them to Nigeria as students and retained them in Nigeria as professors and professionals. It is this same faith that gives us encouragement and hope in the deliberations and Resolutions of the House Committee. It is this faith, hope and encouragement that is the strength of this petition by these professors and professionals.
“It is the same strength that reinforces the Judgments of three separate Judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja in 2019 and Opinion 059/2022 of the UN HRC WGAD of October 2022 asking that these professors be released by Nigeria because they were illegally abducted, arbitrarily detained and unconstitutionally deprived of their fundamental human rights in very unconscionable circumstances” Fru noted.
The detained professors include; Sisiku Julius Ayuke Tabe, Shufai Blaise, Sevidzem Berinyuy, Awasum Augustine Cheh, Dr Henry Tata Kimeng, Barr Eyambe E Elias EBAI, Dr Cornelius Kwanga Njikimbi, Dr Fidelis Ndeh Nche, Dr Egbengu Ogork, Mr. Nfor Ngala Nfor and Mr. Tassang Wilfred Forbang.
