August 7, 2009
OVER 220 illegal immigrants in Libya mostly Nigerians may be executed before tomorrow morning, New Nigerian has learned. A source said that out of this number, 30 were allegedly executed in the early hours of yesterday in the prison yard in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.
According to the source, among the Nigerian illegal immigrants awaiting execution in Libya is a 37-year-old Benedict Ukoma Jude from Imo State who was arrested along with other Nigerians for entering the country without valid documents.
It was gathered that the arrested Nigerians were kept separately from other nationals from Ghana, Niger, Cameroun ,Algeria and Mali just as the Nigerians were being dehumanized before their alleged execution. An official of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja however told our correspondent that Nigerian government was not aware of such development.
Benedict Ukoma Jude who spoke to New Nigerian from his prison cell in Libya yesterday said most Nigerian illegal immigrants were arrested in the desert while trying to cross to Europe.
Benedict, who also denied being involved in any criminal activity in Libya said, the illegal aliens were arraigned before a court after the arrest, adding that the charges against them were read to them in the language they could not understand while the judicial officers feighned not to understand English.
He alleged that the Libyan authorities have been killing illegal aliens in batches since last week, stressing that the remaining prisoners would be executed tomorrow as over 10 Nigerians were among those executed yesterday.
Speaking to New Nigerian on the ugly development in Libya, President of the Safe Motherhood Foundation, a Kaduna based NGO , Rev Joe Adejo expressed disgust over the summary execution of illegal aliens in that country.
The cleric said the authorities in Tripoli should have been happy to see nationals of other sister African countries coming to contribute to the economic development of their nation.
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He said the action of the Libyan government negates the concept of African brotherhood , which he maintained should be condemned in all its ramifications just as he advised Nigerian youths to remain in their country to develop their fatherland.
Efforts to get the view of Libyan Embassy officials in Nigeria on the issue were unsuccessful, as New Nigerian was told yesterday that the embassy had not been in operation for nearly one year now.
It would be recalled that over 300 Nigerian illegal immigrants were killed in Libya while several hundreds were deported after they were dehumanised in the past two years.
In the meantime, officials of Sudanese Embassy in Tripoli embarked on protest yesterday outside the maximum prison yard, where the illegal aliens were being kept awaiting execution. Sudanese nationals are among illegal immigrants to be killed before the sun set tomorrow.
Thomas Adejo, Kaduna, New Nigerian Newspaper