…Recounts his 18-month ordeal in Italian prison

Former Edo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Diaspora Affairs during Governor Godwin Obaseki’s first term, Mr. Osaze Osemwegie-Ero, in this interview recounts his 18-month ordeal in Italian prison for an offence he said he did not commit, false allegation that he was arrested in France with the sum of $2 million and why the Federal Government must fight for 400 innocent Nigerians illegally detained in Italy.

By Clifford Ndujihe

YOU have been at the fore front of the struggle to retrieve Benin artefacts taken away to foreign countries. How far have you gone with it?

We have done a lot of work. We travelled from London to Austria until the day I was arrested. I was on official duty to Berlin on the same issue. I was invited by the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar. We created a lot of awareness as well.

In 2018, the Edo Festival for Arts and Culture codenamed EDOFEST was organised by the Edo State Government. We did photo exhibition of the stolen artefacts with locations in Europe and America. This exhibition was also done in the palace of His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin and to showcase the affected artefacts to the world.

There have been a lot of meetings on our part as government and other individuals were creating a lot of awareness for people to know that these artefacts have to be returned. The feedback from the EDOFEST we did was very good. We wanted to put more pressure on the Europeans and the Americans that those artefacts needed to be returned.

During the exhibitions, we had a lot of visitors. It coincided with the Oba’s anniversary, and a lot of visitors who came were at the exhibition hall to look at the artefacts And we have feedback as well that people who visit those museums where they are at the moment would always identify them as artefacts from Benin Kingdom, which should be repatriated.

There was a lot of work done and I am not surprised that the governor is still pursuing this struggle because he is an ardent believer and lover of our culture and tourism. That was why he made it one of the systematic pillars of his government in his first administration.

We are very proud of who we are because God created us and blessed us with our culture and heritage. We are on the right course and I am glad that the Germans have decided to bring them back now which, to me, is the beginning of other countries returning them to Nigeria. I am sure Great Britain and other countries would follow suit because before my incarceration, managers of British Museum selected a group which was hosted by the governor. They discussed the return of the artefacts and the building of a museum where they will be kept in Benin. I am glad with the progress so far made.

There has been a controversy as to who should keep the artefacts Should they be returned to the palace or to the museum being built by the state government?

The Oba is the custodian of our culture. The governor is the son of the palace. The most important thing is that the artefacts are coming back home to where they belong. There are procedures. There are processes to be worked on. There is a museum that needs to be built. I am no longer the Commissioner and I can’t immediately know now what plan is on ground on the return of the artefacts However, I am just excited like any other person that the government is taking the right steps to retrieve those artefacts

There is the story that you were arrested…

I was arrested in Amsterdam on December 2, 2019 on my way to honour an invitation to a meeting in Germany on the same issue of the repatriation of our stolen artefacts

On reports that he was arrested for an offence he committed in the past

There was no offence of any sort before my arrest. I didn’t know what was going on. The day of my arrest, I was on an official duty to Amsterdam like I have said before. I was in transit on KLM flight to Berlin. Not until seven or eight months after before it became clear to me the reason I was being kept in prison. I was a victim of racial discrimination and manipulation of the Italian justice system by a very corrupt prosecutor, Dr. Stephanie Casale. The case became clear to me that what was actually going on was not the actual allegation levelled against me.

They alleged that I was a Mafia kingpin involved in exportation and importation of firearms, drugs, cocaine from South America to Nigeria and to Italy; that I was involved in prostitution racketeering, human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and killing. I was shocked.

It was when I demanded evidence for these allegations that it became clear that the man was manipulating the justice system of the country to victimise and incarcerate Nigerians. I can tell you that over 300 Nigerians are in prisons for the same concocted offences and there is no evidence for the crimes they allegedly committed.

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Most times, he asks them to do short trial in Italy and would end up convicting them whereas if you do long trial, it takes time and he will be made to produce evidence. I went for the long trial option because I wanted a situation where he would be compelled to bring out the evidence of whatever crime he claimed I had committed.

So when I asked him to bring the evidence he had against me, I was expecting that I would see guns or cocaine that he said those Nigerians were involved in. I was never involved in any of those things, so there was nothing he could tender. He only produced a manual called Green Bible. That is the manual the Italian criminal organisations are using. This was the only thing he produced.

On November 24, 2020, I was shocked and at the same time laughing because after spending one year in detention in maximum security in Italy with a lot of fundamental human rights abuses, he was bringing a manual for a high profile  case as that.

We started the case. I had a lawyer. I had good friends. My family, my parents, my friends, they were very supportive. Everybody all over the world was praying for me and God heard our prayers. That is why I am sitting down here today.

There are over 300-400 Nigerians in maximum security prisons in Italy for these purported crimes without a single evidence. As I speak to you, 70 Nigerians were arrested on October 28, 2020 in Italy under this same guise. They are in detention and their court trial process is starting September 17, 2021. If you Google Torino Chronicle, Page 8 on 26 September 2020, you will see that 20 Nigerians were sentenced to 140 years for the same Nigerian Mafia accusation and it was this same Green Bible they presented as evidence to sentence these people without a single evidence.

These were things that were going on. It was on February 11, 2021 I had the opportunity of speaking and the chance of addressing the judges. For over one year of my detention, this was the first time I had the opportunity to speak in court. And I expressed disappointment that up until that date in court, the prosecutor had not been able to produce any genuine evidence against me, but instead a forged document as evidence for a huge crime of the nature they concocted.

When were you eventually released?

On May 29 2021, that was the day the judge gave the verdict.

A report said you were found with $2 million allegedly given to you by the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki?

(Laughs) In Paris? I was so surprised when I heard of such claims. I laughed over it because I can’t imagine how people will think that I will carry two million dollars cash in this day and age. Again, the governor was a rich man before he became the governor of Edo State and he is an investment banker. If he wants to steal money, which is even not in his character to do, will he ask me to carry two million dollars cash for him? It was a laughable thing that even learned Nigerians, supposedly honourable members, will open their mouths, whether it is politics or not, to say such things. It is just to tell you the primitive kind of politics we play here.

Unknown to them, the primitive politics, rather than affect the image of the governor as they had intended, earned the innocent man more sympathy and more loyal people who now decided to support him. This gave him the massive victory as the governor of Edo State, today. That accusation was, honestly speaking, very senseless. First of all, I didn’t go to France. I didn’t carry money. I didn’t travel with the governor. I was with the former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and four other people. It was disgraceful of people to be talking about two million dollars, which went viral, and also saying that I was jailed for 10 years, 15 years and all those nonsense on social media. It was shocking the extent to which people could go with fabricating stories.

You mean the governor was not on that trip?

No. He was not on that trip. Like I said earlier, I was travelling with the former Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs and four other people who were following me to Berlin.

What did the judge say before you were released?

He said Mafia allegation was not proved throughout the investigation. The only single evidence they brought was forged, the Green Bible, and thirdly the investigation by the prosecutor was very poor. The Green Bible was written by the University of Benin students in 1978. Apparently, an association used the book that was written in school. They brought the book. They had a 2017 event in that bible; that was why I told you that this book was forged. One of the collaborators who joined them in forging this book was born in 1972. It is important that people know because they still use them to arrest innocent Nigerians.

What would you be telling the Nigerian government over the number of Nigerian citizens in the Italian prisons?

I am deeply concerned about these young Nigerians who are being victimised and thrown into prison. I know these ones because I was a victim. We need to work hard to release those boys. Let the Italian government produce the evidence they have against them. First of all, we do not have anything like the Nigerian Mafia and I’m going to be vocal about it. I have spoken to people. We will join hands to fight this fight. We don’t have the Nigerian Mafia so they cannot be prosecuting them with the Italian Mafia criminal Code, 416 in Italy, without evidence of the crime committed.

My message to the Nigerian Government is that they have to sit up. We cannot have people in position without knowing the responsibilities of the offices they are occupying, whether elected or appointed, it is important. Let them sit up, let us demand justice for these innocent Nigerians because they are there languishing in prisons, their families are suffering. These people have wives, children,  parents, brothers and sisters who are equally suffering because that is what happened to me.

I have spoken to Hon. Abike Dabiri who is the special adviser to the president on Diaspora Matters who also doubles as chairperson of the Nigerian in the Diaspora Commission. She is ready to join me on this fight. I wrote letters to the Senate,  House of Representatives,  and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I didn’t get any response from them.

For how long were you in the prison, and what was the experience like?

Very bad. Imagine being locked up in one room. You are only allowed to go out for an hour a day in the morning, an hour in the afternoon. And only when you want to use the bathroom, that is all. You are 24 hours locked up. I was there for 18 months from  December 2, 2019 to May 29,  2021.

I tried to take my mind off it. I was very prayerful. It brought me closer to God. Because I was innocent and I did not commit any crime, definitely justice will be served, that was my prayer. It could have gone the other way as well. Because I had a good team, my wife, my family, my children, my friends, my parents, they all stood by me. I knew the whole world was praying for me, so I had full confidence that I was going to be released. I don’t know if you saw the video that went viral two weeks before my release. Somebody sent it out and I saw it when I came out and I was happy. I told them I would be out any time we had judgement.

What was the effect of the detention on your health?

The detention affected my health my sugar level went up and my belly became bigger. My children and my wife were stressed out. My aged parents too. My dad went into coma when they told him that I was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He went into coma for four days.

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