Abike Dabiri to Ghana: Punish Criminals, Not Nigerians as a Whole

Abike Dabiri to Ghana: Punish Criminals, Not Nigerians as a Whole

By: IDNN News Desk

Chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has called on Ghana and other countries to punish individual Nigerians found guilty of crimes rather than generalizing and labeling all Nigerians as criminals.

Her comments came amid the “Nigeria Must Go” protest in Ghana, which has stirred diplomatic unease between the two West African nations.

 Dabiri-Erewa recounted past incidents where Nigerian nationals faced severe legal consequences abroad, emphasizing that the actions of a few should not define millions of law-abiding citizens.

“If a few Nigerians have committed crimes on foreign soil, they should be punished and publicly held accountable. However, it is unfair to generalise and attribute that crime to all Nigerians in the region,” she said.

Past Precedents

She cited a notorious 2015 incident in Indonesia, where 21 Nigerians were placed on death row — 20 of them from the same Nigerian state, and one from Edo State. Four were executed despite diplomatic appeals, she noted.

Dabiri-Erewa stressed that while such cases are regrettable, they should not justify stereotyping Nigerians as a whole. She urged Ghanaian authorities to ensure that offenders are named and punished individually.

“Let us know them and let them be dealt with. They can’t be anonymous… Arrest them, jail them, lock them up,” she said, adding that her office continues to work closely with Nigerian embassies to resolve genuine cases and repatriate victims of trafficking.

Positive Contributions Ignored

Dabiri-Erewa lamented that positive contributions of Nigerians in the diaspora rarely make headlines, arguing that bad news dominates the media narrative.

“There are thousands of Nigerians who, if they left some countries today, those countries would feel it. Those are the stories we should also be celebrating,” she said.

Her remarks were aimed not only at Ghana but at all nations where Nigerian expatriates face broad suspicion because of the misconduct of a few.

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