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Home » Archive » The German state attempts to destroy an African exile organisation! 
Fax campaign and the latest update of the campaign (auch in deutsch) Theophilus O. Emiowele Defence Campaign A member of The VOICE - Africa Forum is in danger of deportation to Nigeria! Meiningen's court in Thüringen overrules the Federal Office's (Bundesamt's) decision to give Theophilus political asylum!
From the beginning the court proceedings refused to take into account the overwhelming evidence of his political engagement and commitment in Nigeria as well as in Germany. In a perversion of judicial procedure the judge seemed to take on the role of the prosecutor. The Judge's perspective dominated the hearing and overruled all the prior evidence that had led the Government to advice against Theophilus Emiowele Osezua's deportation. The result was that one year after the Federal Office had accepted Theophilus as being politically persecuted the courts in Thüringen rejected it. Such an obviously biased judgement threatens not only the life and safety of a political refugee, it presents a grave threat to the independence of the German judiciary. The fact cannot be ignored that during this one year period Theophilus' political activity, specially with regard to Nigeria, became widely known in Thüringen as well as in Nigeria. It is unbelievable that the courts had not been conscious of this activity. After the death of the dictator Abacha‚The VOICE organised various conferences and public engagements with leading Human Rights activists from Nigeria and other countries. It exposed that the military regime and collaborative ruling class is still intact and that large scale Human Rights violations including the death penalty are used against political opponents (example Ken Saro-Wiwa's judicial murder) are still taking place. 'The VOICE -Africa Forum' has organised various political actions to oppose deportations and the death penalty still intact in Nigeria. The latest 'elections' (28.02.`99), with only 10 to 15% of the people having voted, brought into power another 'ex'-military dictator Olusegun Obasanjo into power. It was during his tenure as military head of state, that the house of the African Musical meastro Fela Kuti's house was burned down and his mother (who was a famous political figure) was thrown down from the window to her death. German business interests in Nigeria and the work of exile organisations
The organised protests in Germany by Nigerian refugee organisations are the main obstacle to the expansion of German business interests in Nigeria. This is because the refugee organisations express the voice of Human Rights activists in Nigeria - here in the heart of Germany. On the 6th of June 1997, at the height of human rights violations by the Abacha military regime, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported in an article with the headline 'Industry wants to trade with the Nigerian Junta undisturbed': 'The German industry is exerting pressure on the German government, in order to continue economic relations with the military dictatorship in Nigeria without heeding complaints about human rights violations '. The firms included Alcatel, Kabelmetall, BASF, Julius Berger, Daimler-Benz, Dornier-Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Lufthansa and the Nigeria Business Council. The death of Abacha provided the golden opportunity for the business interests to push forward their agenda. During a period characterised by media confusion and manipulation, the German government rushed to make statements expressing optimism about the democratisation process taking place in Nigeria. Even before the so-called military transition had started, Germany had started with obscene haste to charter special planes to deport people to Nigeria - most of the people deported in December 1998 were detained by the Nigerian authorities as soon as they landed in Lagos airport. A number of them were tortured and brutalised. Many of those who were protesting about the situation in Nigeria abroad lost their determination to carry on with the uphill struggle of expressing the reality - which was fundamentally the same as before.
In fact during past few years Nigerian refugees organisations in Germany have been systematically destroyed by deportations and the threat of it in different major cities in Germany. Further the policy of the German asylum system which distributes refugees into different areas, contributes to disorganising the refugees. Specially when people are moved to camps in the middle of forests in Eastern part of Germany it becomes very hard for refugees to organise. However, despite the hardship, The VOICE-Africa Forum has been extremely successful in breaking through the barriers of misinformation about Nigeria and make Thüringen the centre of exile political oppositional activity for Nigeria. 'The VOICE' has explained and condemned the connection between the military collaborative ruling class and the corruption and Human Rights abuses and how it is all underpinned by German, and international exploitative business interests. In this context it is easy to see how The VOICE is a thorn in the flesh of German vested interests.
We demand that Theophilus Emiowele Osezua's asylum application be immediately reopened, and that he is granted political asylum! We demand that there is no obstruction to Theophilus Emiowele Osezua's continued political activity concerning the Human Rights situation in Nigeria! Theophilus should not be deported because of his struggle for a deportation stop to Nigeria! Abolish the death sentence in Nigeria! We ask you as an individual or an organisation to pledge your support for the campaign. Theophilus' lawyer has made an appeal to the high court (Oberverwaltungsgericht - OVB) on the basis that the case is of general importance to all Nigerian asylum seekers. We as all organisations and individuals to send a fax insisting that the courts re-eximine Theophilus' case on this basis. The fax number for the OVB is 00 49 36 4320 6100 (with the international code) please send a copy to International Human Rights Association Bremen 00 49 421 5577 093. The postal address is,
Thüringer Oberverwaltungsgericht Your protest fax or letter will make a difference. We are a refugee organisation - we need money! - donations are much appreciated! We can put you on our mailing list if you contact us. Theophilus O. Emiowele Defence Campaign
Please mention "Theo DC". Acount number: 1363638: Bank number 83053030. Sparkasse, Jena. Invitation to the first public meeting of the Theophilus O.Emiowele Defence Campaign »Theo DC« on 23. March at 16 Uhr in “Offene Arbeit”, Allerheiligen Str. 9, Erfurt. The themes:
Concert - 21 Uhr. Live Band with Africa Zimba - Bongo Blues Percussion. Poems Reading by Theophilus Emiowele. Press Conference - 14 Uhr. Contact: The VOICE Africa Forum. Jena 03641-665214. Falk Klingen
0177-4787068.
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Impressum - Site by warpturbine |
Theophilus Emiowele Osezua was accepted as being politically persecuted by the Federal Office (Bundesamt) on 24.Febr. 1998. The Federal Commissioner (Bundesbeauftragte) appealed against this positive decision, giving arguments which were arbitrary, full of double standards, and manipulation of evidence.
