Uzoma Ahamefule
Straußengasse 24/6
1050 Wien
Phone:+436604659620
E:Mail: [email protected]
His Excellency Dr Jonathan Ebele Goodluck
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Office of the President
Aso Rock, Abuja
Dear Sir,
A NIGERIAN DEPORTEE FROM AUSTRIA, TURNED TO A PUNCHING BAG
This is a follow up letter to the letter I sent to the Nigerian Embassy in Vienna, Austria dated 13.03.2011 and headlined A NIGERIAN IN DEEP PAIN. Sir, in that letter I requested for the invitation of the Nigerian Ambassador just to give the information about a Nigerian who had claimed to have been humiliated and brutalized by the agent of the Austrian authority, police. Sir, it is exactly four months seventeen days today that I made that request without the Ambassador finding it important to know this Nigerian that was said to be in pain. It is so sad and regrettable! According to Professor Chinua Achebe “Those who had their kernels cracked for them by benevolent spirits should not forget to be humble”, because our leaders are privileged to be at the helm of affairs should not make them think that other Nigerians are fools. The Nigerian Ambassador to Austria and his Minister should not play with the intelligence of Nigerians and their emotions any more because there is a limit to human endurance. I have equally attached a copy of the letter for your reference.
Sir, I am compelled in pity to inform you and the public through this medium as a matter of principle and concern, and importantly, because of the call I got a week today from the person involved in this issue lamenting about the danger of his health as a result of the torture his body was subjected to. Sir, I was touched when he said that he was supposed to have gone for a heart X-ray because of sharp pains inside his chest since the cruelty of his deportation had occurred but had not because of financial disability.
Sir, this Nigerian is by name Uche Peter Obi who was one of the Nigerians that were deported from Austria earlier this year precisely on 19.01.2011. He is crying for justice and help to be alive. He claimed that he had been tied with a rope to his seat while on board en-route to his deportation to Nigeria and had been mercilessly giving the beating of his life by one of the police men attached to the deportees who had turned him into a punching bag. He said that while the beating had defencelessly and wickedly gone on unchallenged that at a point his body had started swelling up and his heart beat had become faster as he had remembered that it had been exactly the same similar circumstance that Marcus Omofuma died in the hands of the Austrian police in1999. He said that he had been so scared to the marrow of his bone that he had thought that he would die. He went further to say that the police man had rained provocative and abusive words to him and had boasted that he could do anything with him and he would do nothing about it.
In retrospect Sir, Marcus Omofuma was a Nigerian who died on 01.05.1999 as a result of suffocation because his mouth and nose were taped, his legs and hands wickedly tied tightly to his seat by the Austrian police men that were attached to him on the flimsy excuse that he was making noise while also en-route to deportation to Nigeria from Austria.
We must not wait till a Nigerian is killed directly or indirectly in a foreign land or Uche Peter Obi dies before we can belatedly react.
Sir, I am first constrained as a concerned patriotic citizen that feels duty bound as a full blooded proud Nigerian/African who cares about the dignity, ego and respect of his people. Furthermore, I am forced as a person that has been working very close with African asylum seekers in helping them in several little ways since 2002. Sir, even though my brain and my mind clashed severally because of the interest this topic will generate, I am spiritually encouraged from the inspirational quote of Martin Luther King Junior, who said: “Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it simply because it is right.” A lot of people have tried to persuade me to abandon this issue considering what had happened to those that were at the forefront in protest to Marcus Omofuma’s death. But this form of brutality and degrading treatments from the western world can not be solved by sceptics or cynics for every success has got a price. As bestowed by societal influences, freedom is never for free and no social change is known by history without confrontation or conflicts.
The struggle for total emancipation of young Africans especially asylum seekers from police brutality and untimely death in the hands of the authorities they ran to for protection is a struggle for people with character and conscience. I have bravely with difficulty but without minding the odds or the consequences brought this ugly, aching, humiliating and heinous treatment meted to this Nigerian to you. This is a poignant reminder of a typical western impunity way of treating blacks all over the world. The cruelty to Nigerian asylum seekers and their untimely deaths are against the Geneva Convention and freedom to life. Just to refresh your memory, in 1994 Kola Bankola died in the hands of the German police, in 1998 Semira Adamu died in the hands of the Belgium police, in 2007 Osamuyi Aikpitanhi died in the hands of the Spanish police, in 2009 Emmanuel Ngozichukwu Ajoku Benedict died in the hands of the Italian police, in 2010 Alex Uzowulu died in the hands of the Swiss police and in 2011 Mrs Christy Schnudeck nee Omorodion died in the hands of the German police just to mention but a few. The avoidable and challengeable deaths of these Nigerians are so agonizing, depressing and unfortunate! I am so sad and my feeling of sorrow under this situation for asylum seekers is helplessly uncontrollable.
Sir, I have had the opportunity to interview about three people that were in the same flight with Uche Peter Obi and advisedly find it extremely very important that this claim should be investigated and followed to a logical conclusion. This kind of unchallenged man’s inhumanity to man against Africans has metamorphosed into giving the westerners the impetus to treat blacks like fools and has been the greatest impediment militating against Africans to be respected in the western world. Because of the obvious fact that no western citizen would be treated the way Uche Peter Obi had been treated, I plead with you once more Sir, to intervene and investigate the cry of this young man beyond every reasonable doubt.
Sir, Uche Peter Obi might have been extraordinarily lucky to be alive to tell this horrifying story even though he is still battling with his health as a result of the animalistic treatment he got. Futuristically speaking, who knows who will be the next victim? Who knows the form it will be? And who knows if such person will survive the terrible torture and shock? Remember that Marcus Omofuma did not survive such brutality to tell his story and provocatively in the hands of the Austrian Police also.
The negligence of duty by the Nigerian Ambassadors is the first gate way to the molestation and cruel death of so many Nigerians in different parts of the world. For this reason, I hope and pray that the Nigerian Ambassador to Austria will not collaborate in the usual way of I do not care attitude whether now or in future in issuing deportation papers to the Austrian authority without verification of claims, because the Europeans are gearing up again for another round of repatriation.
On this note, Sir, I pray that God in His infinite mercies will grant you good health, wisdom, the time, the desire and the courage to see reasons with me in investigating this case in co-operation with the Foreign Affairs Minister so that the right decisions and actions could earnestly begin before it is too late.
Nigerians/Africans are not animals and this slave treatment must be put to an end.
Because of my conviction that Austrian police has improved and can not be as bad as this particular police officer is trying to portray it. Because the future of my children lies in Austria, therefore I am involved. Based on this, I hereby appeal to the Austrian Interior Minister and the head of the Austrian Foreign Police or the appropriate authority to investigate this allegation just to ascertain the level of truth as to fish out the police officer who is trying to tarnish the reputation of this country.
Every human should be treated with humanity even when he/she is guilty.
With due respect Sir, thank you in anticipation of your understanding of the subject matter.
May God bless Nigeria my father land and bless Austria my adopted country.
Sincerely yours,
Uzoma Ahamefule
A patriotic concerned citizen
