Nigeria and the United Kingdom signed an agreement on Thursday on the exchange of prisoners between them.
Under the agreement, high-profile
prisoners like former Governor James Ibori of Delta State, and other
Nigerians in the UK prisons will be transferred to Nigeria to
complete their jail terms.
The UK Minister of Justice, Mr. Jeremy
Wright, signed on behalf of his country while the Minister of Justice
and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, signed for
Nigeria in Abuja.
Wright, who visited the Acting Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, and the Minister of Interior,
Abba Moro, added that the British government would give the Federal
Government £1m [about N280m} for a comprehensive reform of Nigerian
Prisons.
During the visit to Onwuliri, Wright
told journalists that under the agreement, the consent of a prisoner
was not required before his repatriation could take place.
He said, “In relation to individual
prisoners, there has to be a good deal of discussion between our two
countries about individual prisoners and the agreement of both countries
to be secured before individual transfers.
“The compulsory nature of this prisoner
transfer agreement is that the prisoners’ themselves do not have to
choose where they go or not but the respective countries do still have
an opportunity to discuss whether a transfer should be made.’’
In April 2012, a British court sentenced Ibori to jail for 13 years for money laundering and associated crimes.
Ibori’s wife, Nkoyo, his sister, mistress and London solicitor were also convicted of related crime.
Onwuliri, who described the pact as
“historic,’’ said experts from both countries would work out modalities
for its implementation.
“We have been on the prisoners agreement
for a long time and we are happy that we are beginning the year on a
happy note by signing this agreement,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted her as saying.
The minister expressed delight that the
agreement would improve the condition of Nigeria prisons based on
earlier pacts reached before the signing.
She pledged that Nigeria would continue to improve the condition of its prisons.
Also, the Director of Consular and
Immigration Services in the ministry, Mr. Abdulazeez Dankano, noted
that both countries were signatories to the Scheme for the Transfer of
Convicted Offenders within the Commonwealth.
Dankano stated that the scheme allowed
for transfer of prisoners between Nigeria and the UK where the consent
of both states and the prisoner was obtained.
He said that under the Commonwealth Scheme, only one Nigerian had been repatriated from the UK since inception.
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