The Association of Foreign Relations Professionals of Nigeria, AFRPN, has condemned in the strongest terms the illegal arrest and the dehumanizing strangulation of an accredited Nigerian diplomatic agent, Mohammed Buba, by the officials of the Indonesian Immigration Service, as widely displayed in a video on social media.
In a statement signed by AFRPN’s President, Amb. Gani Lawal, the association wants the immediate disengagement of all the Indonesian immigration officers involved in such an uncivilized manner to desecrate the age-long tradition of inviolability of diplomatic agent and their family and property as provided by Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) which states that; “Diplomats must not be liable to any form of arrest or detention, as they are immune from civil or criminal prosecution.”
The AFRPN commended the immediate step taken by the Nigerian government in summoning the Indonesian ambassador and also inviting home the Nigerian ambassador for consultation while expecting the Indonesian ambassador to tow the diplomatic avenue by equally returning to
Jakarta until satisfactory explanation and necessary restitutive steps are taken by Indonesian authorities to assuage frayed nerves.
The statement hinted that while the Ministry is still reviewing the state of Nigeria’s bilateral relations
with Indonesia, a robust reaction is being awaited by the Association to serve as a deterrent to a future occurrence of such treatment to any Nigerian diplomat and embassy home-based staff and indeed any
Nigerian citizen from anywhere across the globe.
The AFRPN strongly recommended that the family of the concerned diplomat must be adequately compensated materially and health-wise for the traumatic treatment meted to them while a public apology satisfactory to the Nigerian people and government must be entered and assurance against repeat occurrence must be given.
The AFRPN also noted the position of the House Committee on Diplomatic Relations to move to invoke Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to declare everyone at the Indonesian Embassy in Abuja a persona non grata if their nation’s authorities fail to effectively explain their actions against the Nigerian Diplomatic Agent.
