Libya and President of United Returnees Foundation. Last
Wednesday, he led over 2000 Edo state indigenes who just
returned from Libya to the Edo state Government House to solicit
the support of the state government.
He gave horrible account of the sufferings of Nigerians in Libya since
the commencement of the civil war and stressed the need for the
returnees to be inculcated into the society so as to avoid crime. He
disclosed that thousands of Nigerians were massacred in the war-
torn country, just as he pleaded with the Federal Government to
also make effort to bring some of the Nigerians stranded in the
southern part of Niger home so that they will not starve to death.
According to him, “I stayed in the city of Tripoli, about 15 kilometers
away from the Nigerian Embassy. I worked with the Nigerian
Embassy, not as a staff but we liaised between Nigerians living in
Libya and the Libyan government. We have four different regions in
Libya, we have the Midwestern region, we have the Odua region,
we have the Arewa and the Ohanaeze region. The crisis actually
started on the 15th of February 2011 and it was inspired by some
Arab countries.
Nigerian returnees from Libya
What happened was that some people protested in the city of
Benghazi and Gaddafi invited them for a meeting to solve the
problem. They demanded that they wanted the sanction on the
banned Islamic groups in the country who were imprisoned without
trial to be lifted. These imprisoned people are seen as radicals and
Gaddafi believed that if he allowed them to operate, they would
definitely work with Al-Qaida and that would be a big problem for
Libya. So, what he did was to arrest these people and dump them in
prison. So the people of Benghazi demanded that these people
must be released, that they are not criminals. Based on that, the
people of Benghazi threatened to cause problem unless those 100
people were released from prison. Due to the pressure, Gaddafi
now freed thousands of prisoners including the 100 Islamic scholars
in prison. So a lot of Nigerians who were in prison benefited from
that gesture. We have had over 4000 Nigerians in Libyan prisons.
Some of them were drug peddlers, illegal immigrants and things like
that. Some of them were imprisoned for 20-25 years. But after
that, they told Gaddafi that releasing those people would not end
the problem and that they wanted salary increase. So, he doubled
their salary thinking he would use the money to buy their conscience.
Even after increasing their salaries, he told every family to go to the
bank and collect the equivalent of $500. But the people of
Benghazi refused to collect the money and Gaddafi now said that
since they refused the money, even when he had released members
of the Islamic group , it means they are now rebels. So he sent
some fighters from Tripoli to go and bomb these protesters in
Benghazi but when the soldiers got there ,they could not. They
informed the people of what they came for and escaped to Malta.
Why Nigerians were massacred
So Gaddafi deployed black soldiers in the Southern part of Libya.
Most of them were foreigners and when they got to Benghazi,
they started killing people. Because of that, Benghazi people
declared war on blacks accusing them of working for Gaddafi. That
was how they started killing any blackman they saw in Libya. Most
of our people were butchered like animals. That was how the
massacre started. Unfortunately, no Nigerian was among those who
killed people on the orders of Gaddafi in Benghazi. We only had some
Chadian soldiers, Niger and Burkina Faso soldiers. This particular squad
were specially trained to defend Gaddafi and that was the first
people he used to attack the city of Benghazi. That was how
Nigerians started having problem in Libya. We have about
80-90,000 Nigerians in Libya.
“The Nigerians who were in prison were innocent. Some of our
people because of lack of jobs became informants to the Libyan
police and they are paid for it. But the truth is that this crisis helped
Nigerians a lot in Libya because all the prisons were opened and that
was how they escaped. There are some Nigerians in Libya who
want fast money and as a result, would not want to get
themselves involved in legitimate businesses and these are the
people that were in prison. We also had many of them who were
innocent but were roped- in one way or the other.
Those of them who
escaped from the prison
when it was opened during
this crisis came to the
Embassy and said they want
to come back to Nigeria that
very night. So we started
looking for how to get them
tickets to come back and
we succeeded before the
Airport was shut down,” he
stated.
Okoduwa further narrated
that, “We also had this
problem with those who
decided to go into
prostitution and that was what led us to present our case before
the Libyan government that we wanted a body that will assist us
fight human trafficking. So, the Embassy gave us a car for the
work and we started arresting those involved in prostitution. But
we found out that when the Libyan government officials arrested
them, they were not giving them jobs. They rather repatriated
them to Nigeria. And the Nigerian government has no job to give
these people when they are brought back home. However, we
started searching for the sponsors of these people and when we
got them, we arrested them.”
We suffered humiliation
“It has not been easy for us since the commencement of the war.
We suffered humiliation because one, we are Christians, secondly
the National Transition Council (NTC) accused us of being used by
Gaddafi to fight them. The very day Gaddafi distributed guns to
Libyans to go and defend Libya, from that moment, we knew we
were in trouble. They would come to your house and request for
euro or dollars and if you failed to give them, they would machete
you. There were four Nigerian guys who were mechanics there.
These people arrested them and recruited them to fight the rebels.
But when these Nigerians who were forced to fight the rebels saw
the rebels coming, they immediately surrendered and informed the
rebels that they were forced to fight them by Gaddafi. And apart
from the intimidation, there was serious hunger. These people
ensured that goods were not getting to us, so we were starving.
The only way some of us were eating was through may be your
landlord who you would beg to shop for you in the market because
we couldn’t come out. And those who were not in good terms with
their landlords found it very difficult to feed. Thousands of Nigerians
died in Libya during this crisis. We also thank God for the quick
response of the Nigerian government which brought an aircraft to
come and pick some of us. We were always in touch with the
Nigerian Ambassador in Libya. The Nigerian government brought two
airlines to come and evacuate about 7000 Nigerians from Tripoli
Airport before the airport was shut. The flights came thrice to
move people back home. In fact, I was among the last people that
came back because we had to supervise things there, though we
have so many stranded Nigerians still there now. I got information
that some even fled to Italy which is also dangerous. The problem
our people are facing there now is that the rebels said Nigerian
government did not support them early enough in the struggle.
Though the Nigerian government has recognized the interim
government in Libya but their fighters are still not comfortable with
Nigerians. So their lives over there now are being threatened. And
now the Interim Government is saying that if you don’t have permit
issued by this present government, then you don’t have any business
in Libya. That is the biggest challenge our people are facing now
which the Federal Government needs to look into urgently before
they will massacre Nigerians again. As a matter of fact, the present
regime now is not friendly with Nigerians at all. No matter how our
people got there, either legally or illegally, it is the duty of the
Nigerian government to protect them. Many of our women are
being raped and if you don’t agree, you are killed. The situation there
is very scary. I will appeal to the government and even well meaning
Nigerians to help reintegrate these Nigerians that came back from
Libya so that they will not turn to criminals. And right now, we have
stranded Nigerians in three cities in Niger. Nigeria is far from them
and Libya is also far from them. These people now are finding it
difficult to feed. They had to run to this area due to the war,” he
stated.
Other returnees who also spoke with Saturday Vanguard
expressed similar opinions. According to Mike Obiahor, “Libya is a
good place .When you go there with genuine documents, you will be
recognized. Unless you go there illegally, you will not have problems.
They respect Nigerians a lot. I was working in one of the oil
companies as a welder, I was doing iron bending and welding. I have
been working there for over four years and had no problem. I was
working with a British company. It is because of the war that we
ran back home. It has not been so easy since I came back as a family
man with a wife and two kids. Before I left Nigeria, I sold my welding
equipment. We are not asking the Governor to render us financial
assistance but since we came back, we saw that the Governor is
working hard for the people. There were so many Nigerians that
were killed. As we are talking now, some Nigerians there are
stranded in the desert in Niger called Agadex and Duruku. Most of our
brothers are stranded there now. In that very place, there is no job.
Most of our brothers said they are killing them now because they
said Gaddafi is using the blacks to fight him. We are appealing to the
Federal Government to assist our brothers. Edo people are more in
that place than any other tribe in Nigeria.”
Julius Agbator, another returnee also said, “ The truth is that Libya is
not an easy place now. Edo state has the highest number of people.
We were running helter skelter for our lives and abandoned our
properties. Nigerians are in trouble there because the new regime
does not want them. They said Gaddafi is using them to fight and so
they are killing our people now. Government must go and help
please.”
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