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| Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari |
Nigerians in the Diaspora have continued to lament the lack of assistance by Nigerian embassies and Consul Generals and how the country’s ambassadors had on several occasions refused to come to their aid when in distress.
In July 2019, SaharaReporters had published how Titi Festos, a Nigerian living in Norway since 2016, was framed up and deported by the Norwegian Police.
Festos was denied help by the Nigerian embassy when he ran to the commission in Oslo, Norway, and eventually had his documents confiscated.
Recently, 12 Nigerian ladies trafficked to Lebanon for slavery have been left stranded by the Nigerian embassy when they ran there for help.
They are still stuck in Lebanon with no hope of how to return home as the embassy has refused to help.
As it stands, they are at risk of being re-captured by their traffickers and even killed for disclosing their secrets.
In this new case, a Nigerian, Abimbola Omolara Samuel, who has been living in Norway since 2013, is at risk of being deported as the Nigerian ambassador, Oyetade, has issued all document to fast-track her deportation to Nigeria.
Samuel, married with two kids, is afraid of losing her children, husband and business due to the deportation.
She said that the Norwegian Government had agreed to issue her required document to continue her stay in the country but it required the validation of Ambassador Oyetade, which has not been forthcoming.
Narrating her ordeal, she said that she had a meeting with the Norwegian Government and Oyetade where the ambassador identified her as a Nigerian and promised to facilitate her stay in the country but he backtracked after the meeting and issued travel documents for her to be deported.
“We were called into a meeting in Bergen (Norway) with the consular from Nigeria and three police officers.
“At the meeting, we got a good connection and I explained that I can’t leave my man and kids to go to Nigeria to file for a family reunion from there when I have my family here in Norway. He understood me and right in the meeting in front of the police, he promised that he would help me.
“Since I went to the meeting with my husband and two girls, the discussion was centred around applying for a reunion from Norway. We got good information about how we should do it and the meeting ended. We contacted our lawyer and we began the process.
“When I was to finalise the application, unknowingly to me, the consul general had gone behind our back to issue my deportation and travel documents to the police,” the woman narrated.
She lamented that if deported, she had no place in Nigeria and would not be able to unite with her family.
She berated the ambassador for failing to protect and assist Nigerians within his jurisdiction.
“What this means is that I have to leave where I have stayed for many years. I have to leave my house and family and stay in Nigeria where I have no father and mother or place to stay.
“Consular Adeyemi Oyetade in Stockholm, Sweden, has in his own way made it possible for the Norwegian Police to send me back to Nigeria.
“He put us in a situation where we all will be harmed and to think that this man occupies a position where he should help Nigerians,” she added.
Samuel and her husband are calling on the Nigerian Government as well as Nigerians in the Diaspora to look into her case and compel the ambassador to retract the travel documents he issued and stop her deportation as she has not committed any offence during her stay in the country for seven years.
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