By Innocent Duru
My report today focuses on Nigerian ladies languishing in prison in Mali. Some of them alleged that they have been in prison for many years without trial and may get a 10-year jail term when eventually sentenced.
To make matters worse, some of them are in the dingy prison with their children and as long as they, the mothers are there, the children will remain co-prisoners even when they have committed no offence.
The innocent kids will, ipso- facto, be subjected to life of total deprivation and not have access to even basic education. The only shelter they have known and will continue to know is the four corners of the suffocating prison. Imagine the damage to their psyche!
It is unfortunate that Nigerians who are citizens of the Giant of Africa are being enslaved and dehumanised in wretched and less sophisticated African countries where they have unfortunately gone to seek greener pastures.
The National Assembly should with the same speed it waded into the Bobrisky issue, probe the embattled ladies’ allegations of extortion by the Nigerian embassy officials in Mali. The Immigration Service should be made to answer questions about how hordes of young Nigerians beat security networks at the borders and end up in slavery camps across Africa.
Beyond appealing to social media influencers to speak against irregular migration, the government MUST revive the economy. The PUSH factors have worsened in recent times.
We can’t continue to apply make-up to the issues affecting our people and the nation. If the rich are crying, you can be sure that the poor are already bleeding and not just ordinarily bleeding but profusely bleeding and inching near the morgue.
Click here to watch video of the women in Mali prison.
Read The Nation’s report, Inside Mali’s house of horror here.
