Outrage over continued detention of Nigerian professors in Cameroon

The prolonged detention of several Nigerian professors by the Cameroon government for the past five years has sparked outrage.

The professors were arrested in Abuja on January 5, 2018, by security agents and later repatriated to Cameroon, tried by a military tribunal, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison, reports Daily Sun.

Former House of Representatives member Abdul Oroh, in a statement yesterday, called on President Bola Tinubu to employ diplomatic and political measures to ensure the release of the detainees.

Mr Oroh, a lawyer at FRULAW Chambers, in a petition before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, lamented that the detainees have been languishing in Cameroonian prisons for over five years.

He criticised the absence of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Cameroonian High Commissioner, the UNHCR Coordinator, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a meeting of the House Committee on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

He expressed worry that the repeated non-appearance of key representatives from both Nigeria and Cameroon at the committee’s sittings significantly stalled progress on the fate of the professors and others jailed in Cameroon.

He pleaded with the House of Representatives to, among other things, cause the Nigerian government to institute urgent action to secure the implementation of Communication 59/2022 of 14 October 2022 of the UN-HRC-WGAD calling for their release.

Additionally, he prayed for the House to cause the Nigerian government to take action and implement the rulings in the three judgements of the Federal High Court of Abuja in 2019, ordering the release and compensation of these petitioners.

He claimed that the detainees were apprehended while in the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) of Nigeria and subsequently transferred to Cameroon.

“We realise that these people were not detained under the administration of Bola Tinubu. Bola Tinubu is a human rights person. He was a former exile, a former refugee in another country who was running away from tyranny. He fought tyranny and defeated tyranny,” he said.

“Now there is renewed hope, so we want that hope that is renewed to engage our neighbours, to touch the lives of our neighbours, especially these, my clients. We want him to intervene with the Cameroonian authorities to release them.”