Thursday, June 21, 2007

"Every man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls...It tolls for thee"

-John Donne

What were you doing on the 9th of June 2007. Whom did you laugh with? Whom did you hold close? Pause, recollect, then read.


An illegal Nigerian immigrant died while being deported from Spain with a restraining gag over his mouth, Spanish media reported on Monday.
The Iberia jet flying 97 passengers to Nigeria had to turn back to Spain and land in Alicante on Saturday after crew discovered that Osamuyia Aikpitanhi (23) had died, newspaper El Pais said.
Police union sources told El Pais Aikpitanhi may have died after swallowing a gag taped over his mouth to prevent him biting extradition officers.

According to reports, Spanish police resorted to beating him until he could be injected with a tranquilizer, his mouth being closed with heavy industrial strength tape, both hands and legs firmly tied with ropes. Then they loaded him into the plane covering him with a sack thereby obstructing the view of other passengers. Other published reports say the Iberia Airline pilot protested to the
Spanish authorities regarding the violation of Mr. Osamuyia Aikpitanhi’s
rights; This was on the heels of sustained
complaints by 96 other Nigerian passengers that were aboard the same
aircraft bound for Lagos, Nigeria.

Please sign the protest letter here.

10 comments:

Admin UD said...

Hi laspapi, is the link for 'Read More Here' working? I think it points to a non-existing google something something. You might wanna check it out.

It's a pity the spate of racist and hate-related events, attacks and backlashes has skyrocketed in recent times especially in eastern europe. The case of Osamuyia is one too many and it's high time we all stand up for what is wrong and take the bull by the horns by initiating changes, no matter how miniscule.

I will personally be cordinating a protest march to the spanish embassy in Cyprus with a colleague. Collectively, we can all leave a mark.

My Dad normally says, 'Nkwucha aburo ujo' meaning Defence is not a show of Cowardice.

Omodudu said...

Yet only few bloggers have taken 10 min to make a statement about it. What a waste of real estate.

laspapi said...

@ ugo- I removed the "read more" link, ugo. People can hit the protest letter page from here, though.

Well done on the cyprus idea. It's time to be heard.

@ omodudu- I hope more people wake up to this call. I found the protest page on abuja babe's blog myself.

Naijadude said...

Omg! this is beyond sad...how could they have treated him like that?

Mimi said...

i read this on ugo's blog. i have posted a protest on my blog.

we did something with the nigerian proclamation. this is a human being's life taken unlawfully.

Cheetarah said...

Hiya, u shd check this book out- Nationality Wog- The Hounding of David Oluwale by Kester Aspden. Ironically it came out in the same month. I think u'll find this very interesting in the least,ta

P.S.is this matter being refered to Ammenesty International because God knows it is in direct contravention to GA res 217 aka the universal declaration of Human rights. Almost every1 sign it and if spain did, they should be made accountable. Will sign the letter.Thank you.

laspapi said...

@ d dude- man's inhumanity to man, dude. It's beyond me.

@ ~mimi~ you're right, ~mimi~, we should rise up on this matter. Animals shouldn't be treated the way he was.

@ cheetarah- thank you very much for the book lead. I also agree that Amnesty Int. should look at this.
Like Fela sang- "They can't dash me my property". The rights to life and dignity belong freely to us all. He died, soiled from his own waste, unable to cry out for help.

Naija Vixen said...

Going to sign the protest,very sad that this happened,cos im sure if it was a spaniard in nigeria...the case will be very much different...

Unknown said...

I just read about this and it makes me feel physically sick. Please please please please - let us take the word - illegal - out of our lexicon when refering to this gentleman. How can someone be illegal on Earth? It makes no sense to me. Does it mean because he was labelled illegal it made it alright to treat him so horribly

laspapi said...

@ vixen- a spaniard in Nigeria would be treated like royalty. Someday, they'll overstretch themselves.

@ jola- "How can someone be illegal on Earth?" -The economics of Europe has led to the African situation. They call the "black wave" illegal.