“No Nigerians in Rwandan jails”: The Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda Says

Nigeria’s envoy in the east African country says both countries will also begin a formal bilateral relationship

Oct 6, 2011 – The Nigerian High Commissioner to Uganda, Fidel Ayogu, has said that there are currently no Nigerians serving jail terms in Rwanda.

Fielding questions from Nigerian journalists in Rwanda shortly before the arrival of President Goodluck Jonathan, Ayogu said there are relatively few Nigerians in Rwanda when compared to other African countries and these are well behaved.

“We don’t have any Nigerian awaiting trial as I am talking to you now,” he said. “And again, Rwanda is a very organised country in terms of law implementation, observing the norms of what they want in the society. So they are disciplined, they don’t spare anybody who goes against the law here be it an indigene or non-indigene. But as I am talking to you, I don’t have a report of any Nigerian in cell or awaiting trial for wrong doing.”

According to Ayogu, Nigerians living in Rwanda are also distinguishing themselves as they do in other countries where they reside. This is evident in the fact that the chairman of the Nigerian community is also heading one of the Rwanda institutions.

The High Commissioner also said Nigeria is set to begin a formal bilateral relationship with Rwanda as what it had in the past was mostly informal even though they had a cordial relationship right from independence adding that they only formal arrangement it had was that of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC).

“On the two-day working visit to Rwanda by President Gooduck Jonathan, this is actually the first of such visits and in the process, the two countries have come together to pencil down a road map of cooperation between the two countries which would be signed into cooperative agreements by the ministers tomorrow,” he said.