Four Nigerian prisoners died in Ethiopian jails while both countries spent years negotiating an agreement to bring them home.

On Friday, the federal government finally signed that agreement. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, announced that 98 Nigerian inmates in Ethiopian prisons will be transferred back to Nigeria to complete their sentences.

"Some of these young people that I saw when I went into that prison could have been anybody's brother," Odumegwu-Ojukwu said in a statement signed by her spokesperson, Dr Magnus Eze. "So, should they be faced with such a precarious situation for one mistake?"

The minister said the agreement is part of the citizen diplomacy framework of President Bola Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda. It prioritises the welfare of Nigerians abroad, especially those in trouble.

She dismissed a list circulating online that claimed Nigeria had 136 inmates in Ethiopia. The real number, she said, is 98. They're held in two maximum-security facilities — Kaliti prisons and Aba Samuel prisons.

The minister also rejected claims that the inmates are from one region. "A lot of them are from the Southeast. There are also those from the Southwest, from the South-South: crime has no ethnicity," she said. "All these people are Nigerian citizens in a foreign jail."

Under the agreement, the inmates won't be freed when they return. The deal includes an undertaking not to grant pardon or amnesty without the consent of Ethiopia. They'll serve out the rest of their jail terms in Nigeria.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu explained why the transfer matters. The inmates have been agitating for years to return home. They face harsh conditions: poor feeding, inadequate medical facilities, language barriers, denial of visitation rights, and lack of legal services.

Four of them died while the two countries finalised the agreement. The minister didn't give their names or say when they died.

Nigeria has been trying to get its citizens out of Ethiopian prisons for years. The government struggled to even get accurate numbers of how many Nigerians were there. The new agreement should make that easier.

The minister said the government is determined to bring the inmates home "to serve their sentences with dignity and without exposing them to inhuman conditions."

  • 98 Nigerian inmates will be transferred from Ethiopian prisons
  • They're held in Kaliti and Aba Samuel prisons, both maximum-security
  • Four prisoners died while the agreement was being negotiated
  • The deal bans pardon or amnesty without Ethiopia's consent
  • The minister said an online list claiming 136 inmates is fake