By Jeremy Fregene
The Federal Government has dismissed as false and misleading a controversial list circulating on social media and other platforms purporting to contain the names, numbers, and offences of Nigerian prisoners in Ethiopia, insisting that the document should be disregarded by the public.
The clarification came as the government defended its recently signed Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement with Ethiopia, describing the arrangement as a humanitarian initiative consistent with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and Nigeria’s citizen diplomacy policy.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, made the position known in a statement issued on Friday by her Special Assistant on Communication and New Media, Dr. Magnus Eze.
According to the minister, the agreement represents a major diplomatic breakthrough aimed at protecting the interests of Nigerians facing difficult circumstances abroad and facilitating the return of convicted citizens to serve their sentences in Nigeria under more humane conditions.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu, however, expressed concern over what she described as deliberate misinformation surrounding the agreement, particularly claims that Nigeria has 136 inmates in Ethiopian prisons.
She categorically stated that the figure being circulated is inaccurate and that the accompanying list of names and alleged offences is entirely fabricated.
“The list trending online is a made-up list. We do not have 136 inmates in Aba Samuel and Kaliti prisons. Those who are subject to this agreement are 98 inmates,” she said.
The minister also dismissed descriptions of some of the alleged crimes attributed to the prisoners in the circulating document, describing them as fictitious and designed to mislead the public.
She explained that negotiations to secure the transfer of Nigerian prisoners from Ethiopia had been ongoing for several years, complicated by difficulties in obtaining accurate records and reconciling inmate data across different correctional facilities.
According to her, the affected Nigerians are held in Ethiopia’s Kaliti and Aba Samuel maximum-security prisons, where many have repeatedly appealed to Nigerian authorities to facilitate their return home.
The agreement, she said, allows convicted persons serving prison terms in one country to be transferred to their country of origin to complete their sentences, a practice recognised in many jurisdictions around the world.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu stressed that the initiative is not intended to secure freedom for convicted prisoners but rather to enable them to serve their lawful sentences closer to their families and under conditions that better protect their rights and welfare.
She cited concerns over poor living conditions, inadequate healthcare, poor nutrition, limited legal support, language barriers, and restrictions on family visits as some of the challenges faced by Nigerians incarcerated in Ethiopia.
The minister revealed that four Nigerian inmates died while both countries were still working to finalise the transfer arrangement, underscoring the urgency of the humanitarian intervention.
“Some of these young people that I saw when I visited the prison could have been anybody’s brother. Should they be faced with such a precarious situation for one mistake?” she asked.
Addressing fears that transferred prisoners could be granted automatic freedom upon arrival in Nigeria, Odumegwu-Ojukwu said such concerns were unfounded.
She explained that one of the key provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both countries expressly prohibits the receiving country from granting pardon, amnesty or any form of sentence relief without the consent of the sentencing state.
The minister also rejected attempts to portray the inmates as belonging to any particular ethnic or regional group, insisting that criminality has no ethnic, religious or regional identity.
“A lot of them are from the South-East. There are also those from the South-West and the South-South. Crime has no ethnicity. All these people are Nigerian citizens in a foreign jail,” she said.
She maintained that the government’s objective is to ensure that affected Nigerians serve out their sentences with dignity while remaining accountable for their offences, adding that the agreement reflects Nigeria’s commitment to protecting its citizens wherever they may be.