*F.G. to investigate the killing of a Nigerian woman by Ethiopian Police.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, NIDCOM Chairman. Image: Daily Post.
The Nigerian government has said it would investigate the death of Nigeria's Chizoba Eze who was allegedly beaten to death by Ethiopian policemen in Addis Ababa.
Chairman/ CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, while reacting to Chizoba's death revealed that the Commission had contacted Nigerian Mission in Ethiopia for a thorough investigation to be carried out.
While expressing her condolences to the family of the deceased, she raised concerns about the reported poor living conditions of some Nigerian prisoners serving various terms in Ethiopia, mainly for drug trafficking.
The NIDCOM chairman noted that Ethiopia had 2019 pardoned some Nigerian prisoners, but some of them were re-arrested shortly after, for drug-related offenses.
"The Nigerian Mission in Ethiopia has proposed an MOU from the Nigerian Correctional Service with the Ethiopian authorities on the transfer of sentenced persons to Nigeria to complete their respective jail terms in Nigeria, and they are awaiting a response from Ethiopia.
"Even though Ethiopia granted amnesty to Nigerian Prisoners in 2019, a number of them still found their way back to the country and allegedly committed the same drug-related crime,” Dabiri- Erewa said.
Chizoba was beaten to death.
Image: Sahara Reporters.
The Nigerian woman, identified as Chizoba Favour Eze, succumbed to grave injuries allegedly inflicted on her by Ethiopian police operatives attached to Kaiti prison, Ethiopia.
Chizoba, an inmate died in the maximum prison facility in Addis Ababa, after she was hit on the breasts by Ethiopian policemen and forcefully given an injection at a hospital.
According to Sahara Reporters, citing multiple sources, Chizoba's corpse was abandoned in her prison cell for more than 36 hours, sparking a protest by her cellmates who were earlier barred by the prison management from informing the Nigerian embassy in Ethiopia.
A source told the outlet that, “A Nigerian woman, Chizoba Favor Eze has been brutalized to death at Kaliti Prison in Ethiopia. She died on 12/3/2023.
"It’s so sad that the policemen killed our sister. They gave her internal injury on her chest after brutally hitting her on the breasts which led to her death.
“After a week, she started feeling sick because of the internal injuries she had inside her body.
"They took her to the hospital for the first time to receive treatment and the doctor gave her an injection and they brought her back to her room.
"The deceased started feeling weak again and they took her to the hospital on Saturday 11/3/2023.
" Then they brought the same injection and the deceased complained bitterly that the injection was not good for her body, she added that she didn’t want to take any injection again, and they gave her the injection forcefully.
“On Sunday morning she died. She died inside her room which made the other foreigners, such as Brazilian, and Venezuelan women, and others feel bad because the injection the deceased took led to her death.
“The foreigners went through the bag of the deceased and took the Nigerian embassy's telephone number to call the embassy, because the deceased body was there with them in the room for over 36 hours, so the foreigners decided to call the embassy of Nigeria to tell them what was happening.
"The policewomen refused they should call the embassy.
“The foreigners started protesting, and the policewomen called the policemen to the zone.
"When they came, they started beating all the foreigners brutally and wounded so many of them, of which some of them that went to court yesterday (Monday) complained bitterly to the judges.
"We are calling on the embassy of Nigeria in Ethiopia to help us,” the source narrated.
According to SaharaReporters over 300 Nigerians are presently in the Ethiopian prison facility.
Some of them had called on the Nigerian government to enable their transfer to prisons in Nigeria, saying that they suffer grave human rights abuses in the prison.
In a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian embassy in Ethiopia, the Nigerian detainees also complained of starvation, lack of access to medical care, corporal and capital punishment, and overcrowding.
The letter read in part, “The Nigerian inmates in Kaliti maximum prison Ethiopia are soliciting help from the Nigerian government.
"We ask that the government come to our aid urgently.
“We lack access to water, food, and medical care.
"We are asking the government to intervene so we can serve the rest of our jail terms in Nigeria. Many of us have fallen ill due to malnourishment, the health infrastructure is weak, and inmates are suffering from precarious health issues.”
Human Rights.
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