Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has assured that the two Nigerians in Bosnian refugee camps are doing well and are expected to return to Croatia anytime from Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 preparatory to their onward return to Nigeria.

The Chairman/CEO of the commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa gave the assurance in a statement by NIDCOM’s Head of Media and Publicity Abdulrahman Balogun on Friday.

The NIDCOM boss’ assurances are coming after series of diplomatic interventions from the Nigerian Mission in Hungary and Mr Geoffrey Onyema, the Minister of Foreign Affairs who directed that full investigations into the matter be carried out.

It will be recalled that two students of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Abia Alexandro Uchenna and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, who attended an international table tennis competition in
Croatia, ended up in a Bosnian refugee camp.

She said that arrangements to send the two Nigerians back to Croatia anytime from Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 had been concluded adding that the Nigerian Mission in Hungary “has taken steps to ensure that the matter is resolved and the welfare of the two Nigerians protected.”

She added that five of them were in that country to participate in the table tennis event without the knowledge of the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation, two returned more than two weeks ago, and three of them stayed back while one had already applied for asylum.

Although the Croatian authorities had through the Nigerian ambassador in Budapest denied the allegation maltreatment by the Croatian Police, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama has demanded full investigation into the matter.

She said that the conditions attached to their release included the usage of their return tickets from Zagreb back to Nigeria and must not seek Asylum in Croatia, just as one of them had already done.

Dabiri-Erewa appealed to Nigerians to always inform relevant authorities whenever they go on such trips outside the country and to be of good behaviour.

According to a report, Abia Alexandro Uchenna, Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, and three other students arrived in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, on Nov. 12, for the fifth world inter-university championships held in the
country.

They were allegedly arrested while taking a walk around the country’s capital on November 18 as they couldn’t produce relevant documents to the police.

The police officers were reported to have transferred the students to the country’s Bosnia-Herzegovina border, where Croatian authorities had gathered a group of illegal migrants attempting to cross into the country.