The House of Representatives has summoned the? Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Gbenga Ashiru, asking him? to appear before the House to brief lawmakers on concrete measures put in place to protect Nigerians in Libya and secure their evacuation from the war- torn country.
The lawmakers also resolved to launch a probe into the activities of the Federal Road maintenance Agency (FERMA).
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The invitation of Ashiru was subsequent on a motion sponsored by Hon. Abubakar Momoh (ACN, Edo State) during yesterday plenary.
Bringing the matter to the notice of the lawmakers, Momoh said that Nigerians were? worried by the brutalisation and dehumanisation of their relations by rebels in Libya without any justification.
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Relying on monitored reports, the lawmaker informed the House that immigrants, especially Nigerians, had been increasingly targeted for ill-treatment by the rebels for allegedly being mercenaries of the fallen Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya,? with a significant population of sub-Saharan immigrants,? remains a crucial transit point for many of the immigrants seeking illegal entry into neighbouring European country via the Mediterranean Sea.
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The motion, which was titled, “The ravaging war in Libya and the need to evacuate Nigerian citizens the country reads in part,’…Black Africans are no longer safe in Libya; Embassies are under attack as evidently demonstrated in the case of Nigerien (Niger republic) Embassy in Libya, and the continuous stay of our nationals in Libya means further endangering of lives.”
Momoh also decried that no concrete measure had been taken by the federal government and the National Transitional Council (NTC) of Libya, recognised by Nigeria,? to avert imminent and foreseen dangers to lives and properties of Nigerians in Libya.
In wide ranging debates on the motion, –mostly in support—the lawmakers criticized? the foreign minister on his reported downplay on the ill-treatment meted out to? Nigerians in the north African country.
Hon. Nkoyo Toyo (Cross River/PDP) said, “It is regrettable that the language of the minister on the plight of Nigerians in Libya is very contradictory to wide spread accounts.”
According to the motion, over 200 Nigerians are being held in underground cells in Libya with no means to health care and good food because of acute shortage.
?On the FERMA probe, chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon Sam Tsokwa, who sponsored the motion, said between 2005 and 2011, the National Assembly had appropriated huge funds to FERMA in various Appropriation Acts running into billions of naira for its operation and projects.
Ruling on the motion, the Speaker,? Hon.? Aminu Tambuwal , stayed debate on the motion as he reasoned that it would? be pre-judicial to the planned public hearing.
According to the lawmakers, the public hearing will determine how much funds the agency has gulped and whether its activities have been given value for money.
The development is coming fast on the heels of the recent impromptu removal of as the managing director of FERMA,? Kabir Abdullahi.
President Goodluck Jonathan had removed Abdullahi and constituted? a new board of directors for the agency.
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