The Lebanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Houssam Diab, yesterday, walked out on the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs.
The Committee had summoned Diab in respect to the ill-treatment of Nigerians in Lebanon, particularly Temitope Ariwolo, a 31-year-old woman, who was abused by her employers and prevented from leaving the country.
However, shortly before the meeting commenced, the ambassador walked out of Hearing Room 348, venue of the interactive session, and banged the door behind him.
Chairman of the committee, Tolulope Sadipe, who was shocked by the development, quickly called for an executive session.
After the executive session, Sadipe explained that “it was a misunderstanding, it was meant to be an informal meeting and the Ambassador was not aware that even when we have our informal meeting, it is documented. Because of the law of diplomacy, he wasn’t expecting to have media there and it was immediately resolved that it was going to be an executive session.
She said Ariwolo and other Nigerians held in Lebanon under similar circumstances will be evacuated this weekend.
The lawmaker charged Nigerians to join the fight against human trafficking by reporting perpetrators to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
“We will continue to collaborate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that we have a continued relationship with Lebanon that our girls can go there legally to work and work in circumstances that are not dehumanising. You will be invited on the day Temitope arrives and you will see that this is not eye service and not just Temitope, that flight is bringing in Ladies who want to come home and we will continue to bring home those who want to come home. The Lebanese Government is promising us now that it will ensure our girls work in very humane circumstances.”