Six Nigerian professors, along with four others, are currently held in detention in Cameroon, their lawyer Barrister Joseph Fru disclosed on Tuesday. The detainees, originally from Cameroon and legally residing in Nigeria, were allegedly abducted and deported to Cameroon in January 2018 on charges of plotting against the Cameroonian government.
Fru stated that despite two favorable judgments in Nigerian courts declaring their arrest and deportation illegal, they remain imprisoned in Cameroon’s Kondengui Security Detention facility. Moreover, the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found their detention by both Nigeria and Cameroon to be illegal and arbitrary, urging their unconditional release and compensation.
During the recent hearing before the House Committee on Public Petitions, Mohammed Manu from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed ignorance of the petition, stating that the matter was treated as a security and legal issue by the government.
Expressing optimism about the legislative intervention, Fru highlighted the absence of key stakeholders, including the Attorney General of the Federation and representatives from the UN and relevant Nigerian agencies, at the hearing. He emphasized the illegal nature of their detention and the lack of proper legal processes in their deportation:
“There is a clarification that we need to make that is fundamental and cardinal. They were abducted. They were not arrested… An abduction does not end when we know where they are. That illegal act continues and abides with them until that illegality is cured. And to this point that illegality has not been cured and that is why we are still in prison.”
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Regarding their adjournment until June 11, 2024, Fru noted the committee’s dissatisfaction with the absence of government representatives at the previous hearing. He emphasized the importance of their presence for a resolution to the matter:
“We adjourned for 11 June 2024 because the committee is not happy with the fact that the last time they were elements of the government of the executive arm that were required to be at the hearing but none of them showed up… The Chairman said they were going to give these entities a last chance to appear so they can have enough information to go by and come up with a resolution.”
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