NCAC To Engage Minister Of Foreign Affairs Over Arrest Of Nigerians Abroad

By Roland Ekama

 

The Director General of National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC) , Otunba Segun Runsewe has promised to engage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with recommendations and suggestions on how to curb the emerging global outcry about Nigerians caught or paraded abroad for drug related offences and internet fraud in the past three weeks.

 

The NCAC boss who frowned at the development, in a statement made available to Dailyfocus News Online on Monday, described the trend as a national embarrassment, noted that a sure way of getting to the roots of this matter is to ” first of trace all the accused to their roots and if they are found to be from there, such a person(s), must be made to face public disgrace for embarking on such dark ventures.”

 

“Though the trend is unbecoming but the ease at which other African persons access our national passports despite the hard work of the Nigerian immigration service to improve on features of our passports against illegal duplication beats the mind, hence the need to properly ascertain the originality of any Nigerian passport holder on such escapade.

 

 

Otunba Runsewe who described the disturbing trend as locust attack against the image of Nigeria and Nigerians, called for a national probe to truly find out the true identity of the alleged offenders to determine if the Nigerian passports in their possession were genuine and the holders truly Nigerians.

 

He posited “The coincidence and the space of time within which these negative occurrence happened were very suspicious, as the events came virtually a week after the other and Nigerians branded as a nation of desperate and fraudulent people despite the attempts at home to discourage sundry crime and corruption”, he stated.

 

He added that “Time has come to properly investigate the true identity of the so called paraded Nigerians caught for drugs in Saudi Arabia and those bursted in Dubia and recently in the United States of America.

 

NCAC boss who applauded FCT minister last week for the raid of Abuja night clubs where the Nigerian young persons were lured into nude shows, expressed regrets about these trends and suggested a thorough investigation of the background of the culprits to truly ascertain if they are Nigerians and pleaded that the ugly development should not tear asunder the fabric of Nigerian Cultural unity as evident at the ongoing national discuss and social media interactions with each ethnic group taking to a side of the boxing ring in an unpatriotic advocacy against each other.

 

“As yoruba and south Westerner, proudly Nigerian, the mere mention of any Nigerian caught in this act and truly found to be a Nigerian should be seen as damaging to our image and the Nigerian passport, hence all hands must be on deck to curb the development as none of our diverse Cultural expectations, approves and encourages defiant behaviours of any kind”, he noted.

 

The NCAC boss equally wondered at the ‘silence’ of all the major stakeholders of the Nigerian nation, describing it as suspicious since our leaders are known to openly condemn and proffer solutions to this type of malaise which could set the country’s social and economic prospects backwards.