15, 316 Nigerians in Prisons abroad

There are currently 15,316 Nigerians imprisoned abroad, with the largest number, 752, languishing in UK jails.

This was according to Abdulazeez Dankano, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Consular and Immigration Services, who was speaking yesterday in Abuja.

The figure is 6, 000 more than the official statistics published by the ministry in June this year, but Dankano said that the number is still an estimate because some countries do not reveal their prison information.

“Sometimes our missions go through serious challenges to get the information,’’ Mr. Dankano said.

He further revealed that many of the Nigerian prisoners in Asia had been convicted of drug-trafficking, and said that Nigeria and Thailand were currently implementing a Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA), which enables the prisoner to return home to finish his sentence. The scheme has seen the repatriation of 400 Nigerian prisoners since 2008.

The UK, Hong Kong and India have also concluded bilateral PTA talks but are yet to sign agreements.

“The three agreements are ready and at a convenient time for the countries, they will be signed’’ he said, adding that the agreement with India, which has 665 Nigerians in its prisons, was finalised last month. Nigeria has an existing PTA with the UK under the Commonwealth scheme, but it had only facilitated the repatriation of one prisoner.

300 Nigerians in UK prisons are qualified for repatriation, but each prisoner has to consent to being sent home so as not to violate their human rights, and both the foreign country and Nigeria also have to agree. In Hong Kong, 22 Nigerian prisoners are willing to return home to complete their sentence and negotiations are underway to bring them back.

Dankano said that the repatriation of prisoners was usually a hard bargain for the country as most airlines are cautious of transporting them.

“The Nigerian government does not pay for any prisoner to be transported home. We can only facilitate their return and when they come, government will shoulder the responsibility of maintaining them until they end their term’’ he said.