Onitsha Human Cargo: Nigerian Refugees In Their Own Country

The Onitsha South Local Government Area Secretariat Annex, in Anambra State, was built for administrative purposes. Today, it's occupied quite alright, but not by workers alone. One of the halls in the complex has been turned into a refugee camp.

In the hall are men, women and babies, who were brought to Onitsha by agents of the Lagos State government and figuratively dumped on Anambra State government some weeks ago. Arrested in Lagos and "deported" to Anambra, these people are now refugees in their land. They have been given temporary accommodation and being fed by Anambra State government.

And their security is in the hands of operatives of Nigerian Civil Defence Corps (NCDC). Residents of the commercial city of Onitsha, especially those in Upper Iweka, woke up a few weeks ago to behold about 600 strange persons. It was gathered that they were brought in the dead of the night by a trailer, whose departure point was not known immediately.

News of their presence had spread like a wide fire and in different versions. While some said they were members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect brought into Onitsha, in disguise, to unleash terror, others said they were destitute persons deported from Lagos State. The Onitsha Area Commander, Mr. Benjamin Wordu and Divisional Police Officers in charge of Central Police Station, Mr. Abdul Yusuf and his Fegge counterpart, Mr. Roland Omatoje, had, however, immediately, dispelled the fear that they were members of Boko Haram.

 The Anambra State government, on its part, had swung into action and took custody of the strange visitors. It was later learnt that they were people picked up from the streets of Lagos and moved to Onitsha. Speaking on this, Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, had charged the people to be alert and vigilant at all times. He thanked members of the public for bringing the information to him as soon as the destitute persons were dropped, adding that increased vigilance in all the communities in the state would help forestall this type of incident.

 The governor had said he had directed law enforcement agencies to impound the trailer that brought the people as well as take custody of the inmates, pending investigations. Saturday Sun gathered that when investigation revealed that the inmates were ferried from Lagos, Governor Obi expressed sadness that Nigerians could be taken from one state in the country and dumped in another state. He was said to have confronted Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, at the Governors' Forum parley on this.

 The Lagos governor was said to have denied knowledge of this. Not satisfied, Governor Obi has written a petition to President Goodluck Jonathan. Giving a hint to this earlier, the governor had said his government would no longer tolerate a situation where people of the state were discriminated against or have their appointments terminated by other state governments, when indigenes of other states are gainfully employed n Anambra.

 He said: "Investigations have shown that most of them (those 'deported' from Lagos) are not from Anambra State, but were dropped here. I am going to make a report to the Federal Government that Nigerians cannot be refugees in Nigeria. It is a dangerous trend. "We have seen a situation where Anambrarians working in other parts of the country are sent packing, even when they have served faithfully where they were.

  We have not been doing the same thing. In schools, we have most of them from other states. Even teachers and students, most of them are in our school system where we offer free education benefit." Obi said his government would not accept a situation where people were arrested in other states and repatriated to Anambra State. "The wisest thing to do is that they should have been handed over to us to be prosecuted, according to their offences. Most of them are not from Anambra State and we are investigating," he said.

 Investigation revealed that agents of Lagos State government sometimes pick people from the streets. Sources revealed that those usually affected are considered as security risk. They are arrested and "deported" to their states of origin. A source said: "These people are arrested at odd hours and odd places." What made the state government to intensify such effort in recent times is what sources described as proactive step against terrorism.

 "Thousands of people come to Lagos on a daily basis and there is no way you can know how dangerous elements would enter the city. Boko Haram has been operating in the northern part of the country. Do you want Boko Haram to penetrate Lagos? If Boko Haram succeeds in attacking Lagos, the whole world would focus on it. The CNN and other international media would feast on it," the source said. On the justification of such step, another source asked: "Is it right for people to come to Lagos and be sleeping under the bridge? I tell you something; some people would come from outside Nigeria and claim to be northerners. They are usually from Niger Republic and Togo. But they would claim to be northerners.

 They are usually brought to Lagos in trailers in the name of bringing cows. They also bring motorcycles that way. That is one of the reasons we say that okada must go in Lagos. Truth is that foreigners are brought in that way. When they arrive Lagos, they don't have anywhere to stay. They then sleep under bridges in Lagos. You also find them constituting nuisance in important places and at social functions. No government can fold its arm and allow that to continue." During the reign of Adebayo Alao-Akala, as governor of Oyo State, there was a protest about citizens of Oyo being dropped at the middle of the night in Ibadan, the state capital.

 The Lagos State government ignored the protest. Ogun State government also protested when its citizens were deported from Lagos. The protest was also ignored. Speaking on this, Security Adviser to Anambra State Governor, Col. George Molokwu, told Saturday Sun: "Government, through the security agencies are still monitoring them (inmates) and just as I said earlier, there is no cause for alarm. We are still working hard to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident and at the end of the investigations, we shall come up with a way forward." Chairman of the Onitsha South Council area of Anambra State said government decided to take custody of the strange people to enable them to evaluate their condition and ascertain circumstances surrounding the plight .

 He said: "Our governor is a man that has the interest of the people at heart, who is sober when it comes to this type of situation. So, if not because of him, I don't know what could have been the condition of these people, who were dropped at Upper Iweka in a sorry condition." Meanwhile, Lagos State government has denied having a hand in what happened to those dumped at Onitsha.

 According to the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lateef Aderemi Ibirogba, no responsible government can do such thing. He maintained that Nigeria is in a democracy and Lagos was home to all Nigerians, provided people obey the laws of the state and live like responsible citizens of Nigeria. "We don't query where you come from or what has brought you from wherever you come from.

 We always tell the people that we have the responsibility to take care of whoever is here, provided you are ready to go along with us, in terms of following our laws and in terms of the legitimate things you do and by that I mean legitimate business, without having criminal intentions. It is whoever does not have the intention of living with our laws that will have problem with the government.

 "The only thing I want to emphasise is that you must subject yourself to law and order and you must do your legitimate business without being a problem to other people. You must be ready not to be selfish. We believe that where the right of one man ends is where the right of another man begins. If you do all that, we would have no reason to drive anybody anywhere."