Romanus Okoye
Nigerians in Jakarta, Indonesia are planning huge protest despite the threat by foreign affairs Minister that those who engaged in the June 25 protest at Nigeria embassy in Indonesia will be fished out and severely dealt with.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a two-part tweet, condemned the act, describing it as “disgraceful”. He said efforts are being made to bring the suspects to book. According to his tweet, “Absolutely deplorable and disgraceful criminal behaviour by Nigerian hooligans who without justification attacked the Nigerian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia today.”
However, a Nigerian based in Indonesia who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Sun that they were angered when they stayed for hours at the Nigeria embassy but was not attended to by anybody.
He said, “Before yesterday, we were planning for a peaceful protest at the Jakarta Immigration office and have applied for police permit. But the June 25 protest was triggered when one of us from Uli, Anambra State was chased to death. He jumped from a story building because of immigration’s harassment and died. Yet, our embassy here did not care to ask questions.
“When we went to the Nigeria embassy, we only went there to register our displeasure with the way things are going. But for hours, nobody cared to come and hear our complaints.
“So unless urgent steps are taken to remedy the situation and let the Indonesia Immigration treat us like human beings like other legal foreigners, we will still proceed on a major protest at Jakarta Immigration office hopefully by next week, when the police grant us proper permission as applied for by our leaders.”