On Friday, 29th June, 2007, a worldwide protest was done to make the world aware of the injustice being meted out to African immigrants on the whole and to present a formal protest letter to the Spanish embassies, on the death of Osamuyia Aikpitanhi, a Nigerian that died due to harsh treatment by Spanish police officers. A lot has happened since and is still happening. I will try to touch on all of the matters arising, being that I’m a member of the steering committee of the Concerned Nigerians Worldwide, an umbrella association that has been set up to fight for the rights of the degraded as it concerns Africa.

THE PROTEST:
The protest was simultaneously held on the 29th of June, 2007 at the different Spanish embassies scattered around the world. More than 20 countries were duly represented and each presented a protest letter signed by over 3500 concerned citizens to the Spanish Embassy officials. Reports were sent in from Sao Paulo Brazil, Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, London, Istanbul-Turkey, Nicosia-Cyprus, Ottawa-Canada, Hungary, Dublin-Ireland, Munich-Germany, Lagos-Nigeria, Vienna-Austria, Valencia-Spain, and many other countries. Some countries that doesn’t have Spanish embassies submitted to police heads for subsequent transfer to the nearest Spanish consulate. There were reports of slight skirmishes at the Nigerian Consulate in London when the protest moved towards there. All in all, it was a peaceful outing and everybody spoke with one voice.

THE RESPONSE:
The Lagos event was the most covered, being that the families of Osamuyia, his father and mother are in Nigeria. Before then, they were transported from their native state to Lagos and housed by members of the Concerned Nigerians Worldwide before proceeding to the Spanish embassy for the protest march. Newspaper reports on the sight and state of the parents of Osamuyia moved everyone to tears. It was indeed a hurtful sight to behold and they both cried inconsolably for their lost son. Most major state and independent TV stations in Nigeria carried the news and ran subsequent updates.

The outcry achieved needed results as for the first time, though the case is still ongoing in Spain, the Spanish Government sent a condolence letter to the Aikpitanhi family expressing their regret over the unfortunate incidence. Moreover, the Nigerian House of Assembly has commenced hearing on the matter and a committee has been set up to this regard when the matter was brought before the House by Hon Samson Osagie representing Orhionwon/uhunmwode Federal constituency of Edo State in Nigeria. The legislators later mandated the Nigerian Federal Government to demand for damages from their Spanish counterpart, saying, ‘that the treatment meted out to the deceased contravened Article 5 of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights of the UN’ He noted that both Nigeria and Spain were signatories to the convention.

LEGAL FIREWORKS
In response also to the worldwide protest, a renowned human right activist lawyer in Nigeria, with ties abroad, Femi Falana, has taken up the case and is currently working with his fellow lawyers in chamber to sue for appropriate damages for the death of Osamuyia. Mr. Falana, in an exclusive interview with National Daily said, “I was very disturbed because of the level of brutality that was meted to him, which led to his untimely death. I’m more particularly disturbed because he was a Nigerian, whose country hardly takes up such cases, but having been in touch with Concerned Nigerians in the United States of America, who have collected over 6000 signatures, and meeting with the parents, one would like to see that justice is done in this case. In the first place, I got in touch with Amnesty International, a private lawyer in England, as well as another colleague in the U.S, to see how we can have a concerted effort, with the view to bringing to book all the Spanish security officers that sent this chap to his untimely death.”

BACKLASH
Coming on the heels of these are allegations that the Spanish government may be addressing the protest harshly by denying Nigerians traveling to Spain Visa’s on frivolous grounds. According to Phillip, the Admin of http://nigeriavillagesquare.com‘It has been brought to my attention that Nigerians who applied to the Spanish embassy in Dublin for visas several weeks ago are now been refused visas. The embassy has a right to grant or refuse visas but this is happening on the foot of our protest in respect of Osamuyia’s murder. According to two (one of them is a personal friend) Spanish visa applicants who called me this afternoon, they were both called separately shortly after our protest on Friday that their visa’s had been denied.

He went further to say, ‘My friend had been to Spain several times in the past with her kids. She applied to renew their visas only to be told by phone last friday afternoon that their application for visas had been refused. No reason was given for the action so she visited the embassy today and was told that Nigerians had a massive protest at the embassy on friday. She was showed a copy of our protest letter and was told that the visa refusal had nothing to do with her but that there was now a huge political diplomatic row between Nigeria and Spain. She was then advised to contact the Nigerian embassy to hear from them as a huge number of Nigerian applicants who were awaiting a decision on their visa applications from the Spanish embassy in Dublin were refused, effective last Friday.

IBERIA AIRLINES
Just as protests are being made against the Spanish government, a lot of citizens are also shocked that Iberia Airlines could, as a matter of principle or ethics, allow such inhumane, degrading treatment inside one of its planes. This is shocking to say the least. Protest letters were also delivered via mail and courier to the Iberia Airlines management to hear their side of the story. There are indications that they might have colluded with the Spanish Agents of darkness to mete out such harsh treatment to Osamuyia. Others believed it was racially motivated. A member of the standing committee suggested a total boycott of Iberia Airlines saying ‘we need to start an aggressive, rigorous and sustained campaign against Iberia airlines for being an accomplice in this matter. We must make them realize that they should not have allowed a passenger to be put in a sack bound hand and feet and mouth gagged and put inside an Iberia aircraft’

WAY FORWARD
It is the hope of all that started this fight to bring the culprits to book and also to send a note of warning to other like minded countries that that era of
Africa taking all sorts of things thrown to it has passed. The law of human sanctity should be enforced and adequate reparations paid to the victim(s). In this light of this, concerned citizens of the world are saying ‘Enough is Enough’

More updates will be posted as and when due.

Related posts:

1. Sign Osamuyi Aikpitanhi’s Petition – Donald Thieme, An AfricanLoft Author
2. Concerned citizens demand Justice over Osamuyian Akpitanhi