…Accuses Dabiri-Erewa Of Unethical Cover-Up Of Negligent Shortcomings In A Radio Station
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to drop the chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, for alleged acts of insensitivity, lack of empathy, negligence in the discharge of her duties and obvious professional misdemeanor.
Giving the advice in a chat with The Liberation News, national coordinator of a Non-governmental Organisation, Sunshine Liberation Movement (SLM), Elder Dipo Ajidahun, said Dabiri-Erewa had disgraced her office and as such does not deserve to be retained.
The activist cited Dabiri-Erewa’s secret gesture to a radio presenter not to take a call from a concerned member of the public who wanted clarification on the jailing of a 21-year old Nigerian lady, Itunu Babalola, in Cote d’Ivoire on trumped-up charges.
Babalola eventually died in jail after months of mishandling of her case by the Nigerian authorities.
“God bless the person who caught Dabiri-Erewa on video and shared it for the members of the public to see the nature of our supposed leader. What makes her media manipulation unpardonable is that Dabiri-Erewa is a top media personality that should, at all times, uphold the tenets of journalism, not to be caught on camera, destroying it as she did at the radio station. It is sad that her unethical example, as a public officer, at the radio station had confirmed why standards are falling in the country.
“Has Dabiri-Erewa been bribed by a foreign country to help sweep under the carpet, the unjust treatment and death metted out to this promising young Nigerian lady?
“Not a few persons were taken aback by the misconduct of Dabiri-Erewa motioning to the lady presenter not to entertain the curious caller, and even that of journalist who called in subsequently. That manipulatively destructive act of media practice is something disgraceful from a supposed public officer of otherwise touted high repute.
“For this, we demand that President Buhari drop her immediately,” Ajidahun requested.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have relentlessly been on the social media to express deep anger over the death of the wrongfully jailed Nigerian lady, Itunu Babalola.
According to reports, 21-year-old Babalola from Oyo State was a trader based in Bondoukou, Cote d’Ivoire.
Her apartment had been burgled by an Ivorian in September 2019 and she had reported the incident to the police but the Divisional Police Officer in the area reportedly informed her that the suspect was his nephew.
He reportedly offered her a settlement worth roughly N100,000 to drop the case, an amount lesser than the N300,000 worth of the stolen effects.
Babalola was subsequently arrested when she refused the settlement, charged to court for human trafficking and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
A journalist, David Hundeyin, had shared the story of Babalola on Twitter in March 2021 and the Nigerians In Diaspora Commission had said it was working to prove the innocence of Babalola.
NIDCOM, headed by Dabiri-Erewa, had confirmed that the lady was charged and incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit.
“Following painstaking investigations by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and the Nigeria Mission in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, it was confirmed that Babalola was wrongfully charged and incarcerated for a crime she did not commit.
“Plans were underway to engage the services of a legal luminary to prove the innocence of Itunu Babalola at the Court of Appeal after the accused had spent two years out of a ten-year jail term for an offence she did not commit,” the commission had promised in a statement.
However, many Nigerians were shocked on Sunday night when Hundeyin, who had been following the case, gave serial updates that Babalola’s contracted an infection in the Ivorian prison. The journalist uploaded photos of the young lady in an emergency situation being attended to on a stretcher by medical personnel.
Some were irked that eight months after NIDCOM promised to ensure justice was served on the matter and secure the lady’s freedom, Babalola still remained behind bars in the Francophone West African nation.
Many were equally heartbroken when Hundeyin announced hours later that the young lady gave up the ghost.
Meanwhile, Dabiri-Erewa was also reportedly alleged to have blamed the Nigerian lady who died in the Ivorian jail, saying she reported her plight late.
