Reports have emerged that there are over 1,000
Nigerian youths allegedly serving jail terms in Senegalese prisons in Dakar on
cyber-related offences. There are also fears of xenophobic attack on Nigerians
by Senegalese with the aid of the country’s police.
In an exclusive report, it was learnt that some
Nigerians have been in Dakar prisons for over three years without any access to
legal representation, families or loved ones.
It was further gathered that there is a renewed
fight against cybercrimes suspected to be carried out by Nigerians living in
Senegal, following alleged report that one of the Senegal biggest network
providers, SONATEL, was hacked.
It was also gathered that Senegalese Government
now capitalises cybercrime clampdown on Nigerians to falsely report any
successful looking Nigerian to the Senegalese police as a fraudulent person,
with the sole aim of looting their well-furnished houses and other properties
the moment they are whisked away.
Speaking recently a reporter, a Nigerian living
in Senegal, who is simply known as Freeman, alleged that: "The way they
are arresting Nigerians in Senegal now is very frightening, most especially the
Nigerian youths. They are actually arresting internet fruadsters popularly
known as 'Yahoo boys', but they are taking it out of the way. They are
sentencing them to prison without any option of bail.
"Our (Nigerian) government is aware, because I
learnt that the police went to the Nigerian Embassy and the ambassador gave
them permission to arrest any Nigerian youths.
"He said the Nigeria Government is arresting
them too in Nigeria. Nigerians here actually don't live lavishly but always
remain indoors.
"According to what the reporter said, it seems
someone hacked into one of the Senegal’s network providers server, SONATEL.
"So, they believe it's was done by some
Nigerians here. This didn't just start today; they have been arresting
Nigerians even before now without any option to bail them.”
Freeman stated further that "there are
thousands of Nigerian youths in Senegal prison as we speak now. This recent
raid was published because it is the largest they have done, and I also heard
that they had gone to the Nigeria Embassy in Senegal few days before the raid,
and they were allegedly given the order to proceed with the raid by the
Nigerian ambassador.
"They arrested 18 Nigerian youths about three
months ago, and allegedly demanded N2 million from them in order not to go to
jail. Could you believe they sentenced these youths to six months in prison.
Even the last raid was done in my area in Dakar, where they arrested 41
Nigerians.
"I saw one of the boys who was freed recently.
He told me that there are over 1,000 Nigerian youth in the prison, and that some
have been there for over three years.
"The funniest thing is that once you fall
victim of the arrest, whether innocent or guilty, you will go to jail. And your
only offence here is that you have a well-furnished apartment and you look
good.
"Senegalese people are taking the advantage of
the fight against cybercrime to loot homes belonging to Nigerians. They call
the police on you, and the moment they take you away, they break into your
house and steal everything you have, including your passport, cloths, car among
others.”
He continued: "Painfully, Nigerians who have
already served jail term have nothing to return too, and they end up returning
to Nigeria by any means they could with nothing."
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