Human rights advocate and lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has filed a suit at the Federal High Court to challenge the arrest and detention of four naturalized citizens of Nigeria initially thought to have been deported along with 47 Cameroonian separatists and asylum seekers.
The lawyer has also filed a suit to challenge the deportation of the Cameroonian self-determination activists. Hearing in both cases, SaharaReporters gathered, has been fixed for March 2 2018.
Sources told SaharaReporters on Tuesday night that the quartet of Messrs. John Ojong Okongho, Nsoh Nabowah Bih, ThankGod Genesis and Nasiru Bah were not deported to Cameroon with 47 agitators for separation from the French-speaking part of Cameroon.
This website was told that they were transferred from military custody to Police custody at a facility in Asokoro, Abuja.
In January, Mr. Falana, who has been the legal representative of the deported separatists and the naturalized Nigerians wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari demanding explanations for their deportation. He also demanded that the Federal Government should ensure the safety of the naturalized Nigerians.
The Federal Government had deported the Cameroonians after being held for weeks at an undisclosed detention facility by security operatives.
They were arrested at Nera Hotel in Abuja where they had gathered for a meeting on 5 January. Other members of the group picked up and detained by security operatives in Taraba State before they were deported to Cameroon where they would be tried as terrorists.
Mr. Falana had argued that the Federal Government was wrong to have included the naturalized Nigerians among those handed to the Cameroonian authorities.
