Jailed Nigerians in Nepal seeks govt intervention

Nigerian prisoners in Nepal, a country sandwiched between China and India, have called on the Federal Government to rescue them from what they described as dehumanizing treatment.
  Their counsel, Mr. Okechukwu Okpara, told journalists in Abuja on Saturday, that one of the inmates died recently while another was suffering from mental problem.
"Some of these young men are in the prime of their youth and have been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and more. The conditions in Nepal prisons are horrible and dehumanizing. One of the Nigerian inmates has died and another is now mentally ill. They are not allowed any visitations and not entitled to any parole no matter how well they behave there," Okpara added.
He claimed that efforts to open an official communication channel with the Nepalese authorities on the welfare of the 23 concerned Nigerians had failed, leaving them (inmates) isolated and open to more abuses.
The counsel therefore called "on the Nigerian government to immediately open a line of communication with the Nepalese government in order to give these 23 Nigerians access to fair trial."
He said, "There is also an urgent need to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Nepal to transfer the 23 inmates to Nigeria to serve out their sentences if the need arises.
"The truth is that nobody knows what their offences are because nobody has actually gotten through to Nepalese prison authorities. I have only managed to hear from them through an email that they sent to me.
"That was in August this year. Since then, I have made written applications to the offices of President Goodluck Jonathan, the President of the Senate , the Deputy President of the Senate, Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Senate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Okpara added, "But we have received no responses so far except from the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who has shown interest in the Nepal 23.
"These are Nigerians incarcerated in a foreign country. Whatever their offenses are, their continued incarceration is in breach of consular relations because international conventions provide that they be given adequate legal representation and the Nigerian government and their families must be notified of their cases.
"But these were not done as the trials were conducted in a language that the prisoners did not understand and no translation was provided whatsoever and they were made to sign some documents under duress."