Plight of Nigerians in China worsens

· Businessman loses N1.5bn, illegally jailed for 9 years

· Deported, international passport stolen

For thousands of Nigeri­an immigrants, all may not be rosy in the Di­aspora certainly not in China, the Asian econom­ic dragon.

Although China has be­come one of Nigeria’s biggest trading partners, with many Chinese companies thriving in Nigeria, Nigerian businessmen in that country say the coun­try’s economic, trade and com­merce policies are unfavoura­ble to them.

These Nigerians claim that they are often dispossessed of their hard-earned income, il­legally detained and subjected to inhuman treatment in the prisons. Oftentimes they are made to face kangaroo trials on trumped-up charges.

For instance, a Nigerian busi­nessman resident in China, Em­manuel Chukwuebuka Ikejide, has been deported after being il­legally jailed in China for nine years.

Ikejide’s sad story has further buttressed other similar stories of the ill-treatment meted out to Ni­gerians by the Chinese authori­ties.

The heart-rending story of Ikejide, who claimed he was im­prisoned for over nine years in three prisons in China, is as sor­did and mind-boggling as it is bi­zarre.

In a petition dated May 5, 2016, which he sent to the Chi­nese Ambassador in Nigeria (copy of which The AUTHORI­TY obtained) Ikejide, who had a thriving business in Guangzhou District in China, said he is now facing an ordeal of unimaginable proportions.

Although he controlled a business empire worth over N1.5 billion, Ikejide now lives on char­ity due to what he claimed was a well-scripted and dramatised de­portation and confiscation of his sources of income in China.

At the time of filing this re­port, Ikejide provided evidence that he was cumulatively de­tained for nine years and two months at the Dongguan Prison, Qingyuan Prison and at Yinde Prison, since 2007.

After his incarceration, his international passport was alleg­edly seized by his traducers.

Not only this, his business concerns were closed down. He was abducted and illegally de­ported back to Nigeria with fake and illegal emergency travel doc­uments.

The AUTHORITY learnt that some goons in China, espe­cially police officers at the Sany­uan-li Police Sub-Station, pris­on officers in the three prisons where he was imprisoned and some corrupt Chinese top gov­ernment officials made him face trumped up criminal charges in order to dispossess him of his wealth.

Several telephone calls on Ikejide’s plight put to the spokes­person of the Chinese Embassy in Abuja, Mr. Chen, for over one week, were not picked.

Upon discovering that Ike­jide was bent on enforcing his fundamental rights, the Chinese authorities allegedly connived with some Nigerian Embassy of­ficials to “deport” him on Febru­ary 4, 2016, making a fake prom­ise that his grievances had been redressed and adequate compen­sation and restitution paid to him in accordance with the directives of the Peoples Supreme Court, Beijing, China.

In the petition submitted on his behalf by Barr. Donatus Obin­na Okeke, the victim asked for an administrative review of his pur­ported imprisonments in China, payment of adequate compensa­tion, restitution and return of all his seized property, including his international passport No A0872511 and an apology from the Chinese government for sub­jecting him to inhuman treat­ment in China without any cause whatsoever.

In the petition addressed to the Chinese Ambassador in Ni­geria, Okeke stated: “Our client’s travails started on December 5, 2006, after our client and two of his members of staff (Paul, Yao Likun Yao Pengfei) were attacked in their office by some hoodlums who stole $21,000 and 1,000 Yuan and destroyed their office furniture and other properties. The matter was reported at the Sanyuan-li Police Sub-Station, Guangzhou, by our client.

“However, our client was surprised that when he was ar­rested and detained by the Police and later accused of robbing one Chindo of his passport and busi­ness certificates, which were false, because the said Chindo was ow­ing our client the sum of $13,780 and gave the aforementioned passport and business certificates as a collateral for quick settlement of the debt above mentioned.

“To the consternation of our client, the Police decided to shut their eyes to every credible evi­dence and tried our client along with his staff in the criminal rul­ing No 122 of 2008 and he was sentenced at the Higher Peoples Court in Guangdong and de­tained in Dongguan Prison with­out regard to the rights of our cli­ent as provided in Articles 203, 204 (1), 205, 206, 207 and 223 of the Criminal Procedure Laws of the Peoples Republic of China.

“Our client, being dissatisfied with the turn of event and a rape of Chinese criminal and adminis­trative justice system, petitioned the Peoples Supreme Court, Bei­jing, China, but the same unseen hands (mainly Police and Prison officials), who are determined to pervert justice, deceived our cli­ent to believe they were instruct­ed to settle the matter by the Su­preme Court because of the error of Guangzhou.

“Surprisingly, our client was transferred to Qing Yuan and later to Yinde Prisons at various times, making our client to spend nine years and two months for an offence he did not commit,” he said.

Okeke added that while Ike­jide’s case was still pending in the Supreme Court (and yet to be de­termined up till the time of writ­ing this petition), some police officers came to Yinde Prisons, under fraudulent and false pre­tences that the matter had been settled and criminal compensa­tion paid in accordance with par­agraph 1, Article 15 of the Ad­ministrative Laws of the Peoples Republic of China.

He said the police officers un­lawfully seized Ikejide’s passport, criminally abducted him and il­legally smuggled him into Nige­ria with fake and illegal emergen­cy travel documents, in order to incapacitate him from pursuing the justice of his matter.

On his part, Ikejide claimed that some Chinese Police and Prison officials stole his money and cheque book and appropri­ated same.

He added that at the end of his illegal imprisonment, some of these police and prison officials took him from the Yinde Prisons and suggested that he should ac­cept to travel to Singapore, which he refused.

According to him, those of­ficials made him believe that he was paid over N500million com­pensation over his ordeal and wrongful imprisonment and that some property had already been purchased in his name in Maitama, Kado and Gwarimpa Districts of Abuja, pointing out that if he returned to Nigeria, he would take possession of those property registered in his name as restitution.

At the time of the incident, a senior Nigerian diplomatic of­ficial in China, Mr. Chukwurah Chukwurah, who was alleged to have known about Ikejide’s plight, was not forthcoming on it. He simply said: “The mat­ter you raised happened several years ago. I can’t quite remember what the issues were but I guess something like that happened in China.”.

However, two women, who worked in the same Embassy (names withheld because they are not official spokespersons) con­firmed the incident. They said that it is the duty of the Minis­try of Foreign Affairs to sort out such issues because several Ni­gerians have been made to face similar ordeals in the past. They said that all these incidents hap­pened “because there is a high level of complacency among the Nigerian Embassy officials in China on the welfare of our citi­zens over there”.

“We are also aware that some property were purchased at Bok­kor Street, Jabi; Kumasi Cres­cent, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Maitama; Bunkoro Road, 3rd Avenue, Gwarimpa District and off Kado Express Road, Kado, Abuja, with the compensation paid to Mr. Ikejide. We thought these property have been handed over to him because the officials who purchased these property said they did it with the consent of his Chinese wife.”

Ikejide stated that these strange incidents made him to suspect foul play because while he was in detention, he was never allowed to see his Chinese wife, children, nor received any visitor. He said that his kangaroo prose­cution was conducted exclusively in Chinese language without any interpreter.

From our findings, a one-page Emergency Travel Certifi­cate No. NCG/GZ/IMGR/ETC/Vol.2/431, dated 12th January, 2016, was prepared to fret the 49-year-old Ikejide from Guang­hou District, China to the Mur­tala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos and he arrived in the coun­try on February 4, 2016.

Similarly, there was no crim­inal allegation made against him, nor was any reason adduced for giving him the emergency travel document and the Nigerian Im­migration Services (NIS) were not contacted to carry out prop­er protocol should it be a case of deportation.

The petition listed the names of prison officials who partic­ipated in the travails of Ikejide in Dongguan Prisons as: Messrs Yang, Gu, Chu, He and Luo. At the Qing Yuan Prisons were Messrs Su, Chen, Feng and Ou, while Messrs Liu Qiu, Sun, Yin Zhi and Song, were listed from Yinde Prisons. Similarly, Police officers Yang, Gu, Chu, He and Luo were equally fingered in the entire episode.

There are also cases of extra-judicial killing of several Nigeri­ans in China – allegations which neither the Chinese government nor the Chinese Ambassador in Nigeria have disputed or refuted.