Lawan seeks release of 10,000 Nigerians detained in S/Arabia

Senate President Ahmad Lawan has appealed to the government of Saudi Arabia to assist Nigeria in bringing back over ten thousand citizens held in detention in Thames kingdom.

He made the appeal yesterday when the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Nigeria, Faisal Eebraheem Alghamdi, paid a visit to his office at the National Assembly, Abuja.

Lawan said that efforts were underway to evacuate citizens held back in Saudi Arabia.

He said: “We are aware that some of our pilgrims in the past had issues in Saudi Arabia, thousands of them are in detention and, therefore, as a country we have taken conscious decisions to ensure that we continue to educate and enlighten our citizens, especially those going to Saudi Arabia for Ummrah of Hajj, that when they get there, they perform their religious rites and return to Nigeria.

“This is to minimize and possibly avoid people going there and not coming back. I want to assure you that we will continue to support the National Hajj Commission in educating our pilgrims and, of course, the State Welfare Boards across the country.

“Our country is also making a lot of efforts to ensure we evacuate our citizens who are now in Saudi Arabia and who we believe should be back home.

“I want to use this medium to seek the support of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the government to work with us in this respect to get our citizens back.

“Presently, we have over ten thousand Nigerians who are not registered and who are held in detention. It is our desire to ensure that we get these people out of the country and bring them back home.”

Lawan also appealed to Saudi Arabia to use its influence as a major player in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase Nigeria’s crude oil production quota.

According to him, doing so will enable Nigeria meet with the country’s infrastructural demands needed to match its growing population.

Speaking earlier, Alghamdi had said the purpose of the visit was to build on this existing relationship between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, saying, “we need to develop our relationships and this is the goal when I came here.”