Breaking: Nigerian govt deports Cameroonian separatist leaders
Femi Falana on Friday, January 26, said the Nigerian government deported 12 Cameroonian separatist leaders who were arrested at Nera Hotels Abuja on Saturday, January 6 and detained at the Defence Intelligence Agency.
- The Nigerian government has deported 12 Cameroonian separatist leaders
- The Cameroonian leaders were arrested at Nera Hotels Abuja earlier this month and were detained at the Defence Intelligence Agency
Nigerian government on Friday, January 26, deported Cameroonian separatist leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe, president of a self-declared breakaway state and 11 others were arrested at Nera Hotels Abuja on Saturday, January 6.
Femi Falana who has been providing legal support for them said Tabe and the others were detained at the Defence Intelligence Agency.
The detainees were largely held incommunicado, which included denial of access to their lawyers, doctors and family members.
However, the deputy representative of the office of United Nations Commissioner for Refugees to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Brigitte Mukanga-Eno, was allowed to visit them in detention last week, Falana said.
The treatment prompted the lawyer to file a fundamental rights suit to enforce the rights of their clients.
The Buhari administration was criticised for arresting the leaders in a defiant departure from Nigeria’s longstanding policy of being sympathetic towards freedom fighters.
Nigeria was widely praised for its support for the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Falana said the Nigerian government was ashamed to announce the deportation, which is being celebrated by Cameroonian authorities as a major victory in their clampdown on Mr. Tabe and other leaders of the self-proclaimed Ambasonia state in English-speaking parts of Cameroon.
About 39 other Ambasonian separatist leaders who were detained in Taraba were also reported to have been sent back to Cameroon on Friday by the Nigerian government.
Cameroonian authorities said they have the men and vowed to put them through a thorough trial for their alleged offences.
“The group of 47 terrorists, among them Mr. Ayuk Tabe, has for some hours been in the hands of Cameroonian justice, before which they will answer for their crimes,” Cameroonian Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a statement reported by Reuters Monday.
Falana condemned the deportation as “contemptuous of the proceedings pending before the Federal High Court.”
Source: Naija.ng