Paul Osuyi, Asaba
No fewer than 57 Nigerians freed from Ethiopian prisons have appealed to the Federal Government to come to their aid before their evacuation from the East African.
Ethiopia had granted pardon on March 25 to 4,011 convicts as part of measures to decongest their prisons and curb the rapid transmission of COVID-19.
Ethiopia’s Federal Attorney-General, Adanech Abebe was quoted as saying that those freed were serving jail terms in five federal prison facilities including Qaliti maximum prison, Kilinto, Shewarobit, Ziway, and Dire Dawa prisons.
Among the freed inmates were 57 Nigerians said to have be trapped while on transit in search of greener pastures.
Miss Chika Nwachukwu, an Asaba-based freedom advocate and international business executive, alleged that the freed inmates have been abandoned after the Ethiopian government granted them amnesty, adding that they have been screened to ensure that they have not contorted the dreaded virus.
Nwachukwu lamented that the Nigerians were being denied of the little care they were hitherto getting as prisoners, adding that most of them who were sick could not get access to proper medicare.
She accused the Federal Government of not showing concern for the freed Nigerians saying other governments have taken their citizens out of prison premises to safer places within Ethiopia.
“The Nigerians are just there unattended to. They can’t go out because of this COVID-19. Even the usual meals which they were being given while imprison, are no longer be served. They are lamenting, all they need now is for the Nigerian authorities to come and identify them and make provision for a safer place, probably a hotel where they can stay until the airspace is opened. I don’t know why it is taking this long for the Federal Government to respond and rehabilitate her citizens. Is it because most of them are from the eastern part of the country?” she queried.