Pls read from one of the deportees who gave her name as Rosemary Nathaniel, a native of Ubakala in Umuahia, Abia State, “I was neither a beggar nor a hawker for the past five years I lived in Lagos. I was working at a T-shirt weaving centre at Mile 2, Lagos and I lived with my sister. But in January this year, KAI officials and some policemen arrested me and my friend while we were standing and discussing on the road. We were dragged into their waiting vehicle and taken to a prison at Alausa area of Lagos. We saw other people who were also arrested . They took us round the area, made other arrests before taking us all to the prison. The painful aspect of it was that they never bothered to ask any of us where we lived or what were doing for a living. As I speak, my sister whom I live with does not know anything about my whereabouts. It is so sad that this is happening in one’s own country. Another deportee who identified himself as Osondu Mbuto, a trader from Ohaozara in Ebonyi State said he was arrested by KAI officials while on his way to his shop on December 18, 2012. He lamented that since his arrest, he was left incommunicado for eight months in a cell around Ikorodu area of Lagos before he was brought to Onitsha. “I am a Lagos-based petty trader. I packed my goods somewhere and went to eat. As I was going, three persons approached me . Thinking they were miscreants on a mission to dispossess me of my goods, I decided to give them some money. Then, all of a sudden, I saw an armed policeman pointing his gun at me. he ordered me to follow the KAI officials. Out of fear, I joined them as they marched me into a waiting vehicle and drove away”. “My initial suspicion was that they were taking us to Alausa police station, where they used to detain people unlawfully only to release them later after parting with some money. But no! they took me to another place in Ikorodu,close to Ijebu- Ode. After taking my statement, they pushed me inside the cell where I was, for eight months. "Two days before we were deported, a man whom they called boss came with a paper and a biro and said those of us interested in going to our home town should put down our names. Some did while others did not for fear that they were going to be killed. That was how we were sandwiched inside a truck and brought here at the wee hours
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:39:39 +0000
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