Nigerianischer Oppositioneller akut von Abschiebung bedroht:

"...I was kept in custody for almost one week. Police were questioning us. They asked me if I was a member of the organisation Campaign for Democracy. They asked me what I had done for them up to date.(...) Right when I was arrested I felt something hard hit the back of my neck and then I went unconscious. When I woke up, I was in a police station. I was totally naked, because my clothes had been taken off me. Before we were taken to be questioned, they beat us. I first refused to answer. Then they hung me from the ceiling by my hands. (...) During the torture my leg became dislocated. My knee was all swollen up. While I was still in jail, I learned that our officials had already been set free. They worked towards my release. I suppose all of them together did achieve in the end that I was released too. ..."

Public Meeting in Halle
CRISIS OF THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
written by Alabi Adebayo

Extract from Adebayo Alabi's hearing at the (German) Federal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees; on 3 March, in Nigeria, he had been arrested whilst taking part in a demonstration against the Abacha regime

Since his time as a universtity student in the early 1980's, Adebayo Alabi has been campaigning for democracy and human rights. During the protests led by the Nigerian opposition movement in the spring of 1998 - shortly before the death of military dictator Sani Abacha- in which he took part as a member of the 'Campaign for Democracy', he was arrested and tortured. In May 1998, he managed to escape to Germany. He is to this day physically and mentally suffering from the late effects of torture.

In Germany, Adebayo Alabi carried on with his political activities. In the 'Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants' and the refugee organisation 'The VOICE Africa Forum', he became known for his restless commitment. He is a representative in Germany for the 'Oodua Peoples Congress', which had been founded in response to the cruel military dictatorship headed by Abacha, and struggles for the rights and interests of the Yoruba people.

Despite Adebayo Alabi's numerous political activities and the persecution he will have to face in Nigeria, the German authorities are planning to deport him. TheFederal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees (Bundesamt für die Anerkennung ausländischer Flüchtlinge) and the courts he appealed to assume that he is not credible. His experience of torture was never taken into account in his asylum procedure. His application for political asylum was summarily rejected when he first put it in, as mostly happens with Nigerian refugees. There has been a sharp rise in deportations to this West African country, even though Nigeria is on the brink of civil war. The reason to this wave of deportations is mainly to be found in the evolution of Nigerian-German relationships.

Since Olusegun Obasanjo took over the Nigerian presidency in May 1999, Western politicians have been repeating that Nigeria is on the way to democracy. The German Government is keeping silent over the evidence of continuing human rights abuses by the Nigerian regime, in order to help German economic interests, and not to endanger economic co-operation and investments.

Not long ago, President Obasanjo ordered police to shoot OPC members on sight. Several documentations prove a rise in police violence against OPC members. There are known cases of OPC members killed by securtiy forces or having disappeared shortly after their arrest.

In May this year, Alabi Adebayo's second asylum application was rejected by the Federal Office. Now the administrative court in Magdeburg (German state of Sachsen-Anhalt) will have to decide on his fate.

Please join in the protest against the planned deportation of Nigerian exile opposition activist Adebayo Alabi. Request the administrative court to recognise Adebayo Alabi's political persecution at the hands of the Nigerian authorities.

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Adebayo Alabi,a leading member of "The VOICE Africa Forum" and the "Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants" is to be deported to Nigeria!