Nigeria has remained mum on the arrest and the deportation of Cameroonian secession activist Julius Ayuk Tabe. Mr Tabe and 46 others were last Friday deported to Yaoundé, where they were being detained.
Cameroon Communications minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary confirmed the deportation, saying the 47 "terrorists" were in the hands of the Cameroonian justice and would answer for their crimes.However, a lawyer for the deportees, Mr Abdul Oroh, said Nigeria could have made a mistake in kicking out two naturalised citizens and an American.
Dr Ojong Okongho, a businessman and Mrs Nalowa Bih, a lawyer, and Prof Awasum Augustine, a lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, were among the 47 people to Cameroon.
The Nigerians are citizens by naturalisation, said Mr Oroh, a human rights activist and former member of the House of Representatives..
 |
| Nigeria Silent About The Deportations Of Julius Ayuk Tabe and 46 Others To Cameroon |
Mr Oroh, who was also commissioner in Edo State, said 39 refugees were arrested in Jalingo, Taraba State, by the police and all were deported, along with the leaders, who were arrested in Abuja by the Brigade of Guards on January 5.
Mr Oroh described the deported Cameroonians as political activists and members of the Southern Cameroon National Council, “a body committed to preventing genocide and the oppression of the people of Southern Cameroon”.
The Nigerian authorities appeared to have been relying on an international warrant issued for the arrest of Mr Tabe and others in November 2017, as the crisis in anglophone Cameroon worsened.
The deportation to Cameroon had a precedence in 2006, when the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, allowed former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who was on asylum in Nigeria, to be kidnapped and then shipped to Monrovia and later the International Court of Justice to face trial. www.africareview.com
