While speaking during an interaction with the Nigerian community in
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on Tuesday, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is
in the country for 5th EU-AU Summit, broke his silence on the widely
reported “Slave Trading in Libya”, said Nigerian migrants in dire straits in Libya will be identified and evacuated.
The president who opened up in the wake of global condemnation of
the sale of African refugees into slavery in Libya after a recent CNN
video report had shown migrants being traded in an auction, said his
administration will make the country conducive to discourage the youth
from risking their lives.
He said; “In the interview some of you saw, some of the
Nigerians said they were being sold like goats for few dollars for years
in Libya. Now after 43 years of Gaddafi where he recruited so many
people from the Sahel including Nigeria and so on, all they learnt was
how to shoot and kill.
“They didn’t learn to become electricians, plumbers or any
other trade. So, when the Libyans stood against their leader those who
are not their people, they chased them out. A lot of them came back home
with their workers, some of them participated in Boko Haram and become
part of Boko Haram.“So, I’m telling you that our major problem as we have
identified is still the security of the country. We have done much
better everybody is saying it.
“We are doing our best and the leadership at all levels are
doing their best and the problem we are having with those who are being
indoctrinated and are hurting our people, blowing up people in mosques,
churches, marketplaces, motor parks, this is absolute madness.
“No religion advocates violence, all religion advocate justice
from your home, town, household to whatever you become, Justice is the
basic thing all religion demand it as you can’t go wrong if you do it.
“Whenever Nigerians are identified especially in Libya and so
on, we hope to evacuate them back home and then rehabilitate them
because the indoctrination is what is happening with the Boko Haram
where girls will strap themselves mostly from the ages of 15 downwards
and go to the market blow themselves up and anybody around in motor
parks, mosques, churches and so on.”
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the senior special assistant on diaspora and
foreign affairs, said 5000 Nigerians stranded in Libya have been brought
back to the country under the present administration.