The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) has assured that the two Nigerians in Bosnian refugee camp will be taken to Croatia preparatory to their return to Nigeria.
The chair and chief executive officer of the commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa gave the assurance yesterday in a statement by NiDCOM’s spokesman, Mr. Abdulrahman Balogun.
Her assurance came after series of diplomatic interventions from the Nigerian Mission in Hungary and the minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, who directed that full investigations into the matter be carried out.
It would be recalled that two students of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Abia Alexandro Uchenna and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, who attended an international table tennis competition in Croatia, ended up in a Bosnian refugee camp.
Dabiri-Erewa said arrangements to send the two Nigerians back to Croatia anytime from Friday, December 13, 2019 had been concluded.
She added that the Nigerian Mission in Hungary “has taken steps to ensure that the matter is resolved and the welfare of the two Nigerians protected.”
She said five of the refugees were in that country to participate in the table tennis event without the knowledge of the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation.
She said two returned more than two weeks ago, three stayed back while one had already applied for asylum.
Although the Croatian authorities had through the Nigerian ambassador in Budapest denied the allegation of maltreatment of the Nigerians by the Croatian police, Onyeama demanded full investigation into the matter.
She said the conditions attached to their release included the usage of their return tickets from Zagreb back to Nigeria besides not seeking asylum in Croatia as one of them had already done.
Dabiri-Erewa appealed to Nigerians to always inform relevant authorities whenever they go on such trips outside the country and to be of good behaviour.
According to a report, Uchenna, Chinedu and three other students arrived in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, on November 12, for the fifth world inter-university championships held in that country.
They were allegedly arrested while taking a walk around the country’s capital on November 18 as they could not produce relevant documents to the police.
The police officers were reported to have transferred the students to the country’s Bosnia-Herzegovina border, where Croatian authorities had gathered a group of illegal migrants attempting to cross into the country.
(NAN)
