SHA'ABAN 23, 1430 A.H.
THURSDAY AUGUST, 13 2009.
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200 Nigerians face guillotine in Libya... Reps say, want quick govt intervention
The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora has urged the federal government to save more than 200 Nigerians from execution by Libya.
Reacting to the alleged execution of 40 Nigerians by Libya during the week, the committee, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Rep Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said it was imperative for Nigeria to act immediately.
``The Attention of the House Committee on Diaspora has been drawn to the impending execution of about 200 blacks, most of them Nigerians, in Libya.
``Reliable sources in Libya informed the committee that between 32 and 40 black nationals, mostly Nigerians, have already been quietly executed in the last one week and if necessary steps were not taken, a lot more (at least 200) will be executed soon,’’ she said.
Dabiri-Erewa said attempts by the Committee on Diaspora to get official responses from Nigerian diplomats in Libya had yielded no result.
`` Attempts to also get an official reaction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have also hit a brick wall. We call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in line with its policy of 'citizen diplomacy', to intervene immediately,’’ she said.
`` We all must ensure that the lives of these young Nigerians, whatever offences they might have allegedly committed, should be saved while alternative means of resolving issues can be reached.
``We cannot sit back and watch young Nigerians waste away like this no matter what offences they have committed,’’ she stressed.
Speaking in the same vein, Rep Samson Osagie, Chairman House committee on Special Duties, said in a statement that it was regrettable that the resolution by the House in March urging the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take steps to bring back all Nigerians in various deportation camps home was not implemented.
``Up till now, we are yet to see any visible evidence by the FG (federal government) in this direction with the result that our kith and kin in Libya are now facing extinction by execution,'' Osagie.
``It is, therefore, our demand as representatives of the Nigerian people to urge the FG to immediately take necessary diplomatic steps to halt the mass execution of our nationals in Libya,’’ the legislator said.
He reiterated that the primary responsibility of government was to protect its citizens anywhere in the world, adding that the doctrine of citizen diplomacy had no better time to be practicalised than now.
