Gbenro Adesina
Nigerians living in Switzerland have condemned the authority of Nigerian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, for inviting the police to arrest its citizens seeking to obtain the nation’s international passport.
According to a video uploaded on Twitter, the person that shot the video claimed that Nigerian Embassies all over the world are notorious for treating their citizens like animals, pointing out that the authorities of Nigerian missions do not care about Nigerians in the Diaspora.
A voice in the video stated, “This is Nigeria for you. Nigeria Embassy called police for their citizens because, after paying for passport, they do not want to give them the passports, rather they called police for them. Everybody has been here since morning, no water, no coffee, nothing. The only thing they could do is to call police for their citizens. Swiss Government cannot do this to their citizens. A black man is really an animal. Shame on you, shame on all you people. The only water and coffee they can give to their citizens is to call police for them. It is unfortunate. They cannot even learn from the country they are living in”.
Some of the aggrieved Nigerians took their time to explain to the Switzerland police about the wrong treatment melted on them by their embassy.
Protesting, they said, “This embassy is a disgrace to Nigeria. Calling police for your own citizen, is that a good thing to do? Look at you, you are a disgrace. I am disappointed in you people”.
In a prompt reaction, the Director General of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, defended the action of the mission, saying that the mission did not call the Police as erroneously stated in the video, but it invited the Embassy Protection Unit to bring calm and decorum back to the hall when the passport seeking Nigerians failed to observe due process.
In a statement signed signed by NIDCOM Head of Media, Abdurrahman Balogun, and titled, “Video on the alleged arrest of Nigerians at the Embassy in Switzerland – the fact”, the Commission maintained that it was necessary to state the facts concerning the ugly event.
The statement reads in parts:
“In line with Covid-19 protocols, the Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, is only allowed to attend to 10 applicants, however, the Mission made it possible to attend to a maximum of 20 daily, spacing out the appointments.
“But on this day, 64 Nigerians besieged the Nigerian mission in Bern. Only 10 of them were on scheduled appointment.
“54 of them had no appointment for that day and had not made the mandatory online payment and majority of the applicants came from Italy and Spain. With no appointment with no online payment.
“While the Nigerian Amb. Baba Madagu was addressing them, they barged in through the front door and overcrowded a hall that was meant to receive only 10 people at a time.
“The mission did not call the Police as erroneously stated in the video, But invited the Embassy Protection Unit to bring calm and decorum back to the hall. The men of the Embassy protection unit addressed them. And those on appointment as well as those who had made their online payments were attended to while others were advised to follow the due process, with an assurance that everyone will be attended to as long as the rules were followed.
We appeal to Nigerians abroad to be good ambassadors of Nigeria wherever they are and obey laws put in place. The Nigerian mission in Bern is still attending to Nigerians who follow the process, pay on line and book their appointments as stipulated”.
