A young Nigerian student, Olaolu
Femi, (pictured above) is facing life in prison in Ukraine for attempted
murder.
African Outlook gathered that the
Nigerian identified as Olaolu Sunkanmi Femi and one of his friends were
physically attacked in front of his apartment by four Ukrainian young men and
two women who pulled them to the ground while hurling racist slurs on them.
According to eye witness account,
Sunkanmi was said to have managed to get up and defended himself against the
assailants with a glass from a broken bottle.
“It was while he was defending
himself that police arrived at the scene and the Nigerian was subsequently
arrested and charged with attempted murder of five people” a Nigerian embassy
staff who has knowledge of the case told African Outlook, adding that the
victim thus became an accused in a case which has become a celebrated case in
Ukraine.
African Outlook gathered that
Olasunkanmi has since been remanded in detention by the Ukrainian police who
refused to take the case to court citing unavailability of the police to get an
interpreter for him.
But the Nigerian students’ community
in Ukraine under the leadership of Osarumen David-Izevbokun, a Phd student in
international relations has been working tirelessly to ensure justice for the
Nigerian by organizing protests as well as drawing the attentions of the human
right groups in Ukraine to the plight of Olasunkanmi who has spent almost seven
months in jail without trial.
David-Izevbokun told African Outlook
that he alongside other Nigerian students in conjunctions with some members of
the Ukrainian human right groups staged a protest on April, 9 outside the
Leninsky District Court in Luhanski demanding the release of Olasunkanmi.
The actions, according to
David-Izevbokun has put the Ukraine police on the spot as the case came up for
hearing on May 3. “We had a lot of media coverage on the protest ”
David-Izevbokun said, noting that he was sure the attention given the case may
have prompted the May 3 court appearance of the suspect.
David-Izevbokun who was at the May
3, court hearing told African Outlook that Olasunkanmi appeared depressed when
he showed up in court.
Many other Nigerian students spoken
to by African Outlook however raised concern about the competence of the female
lawyer: Ludmila Havrysh handling Olasunkanmi’s case.
The Ukrainian lawyer was reported to
have told protesters that her client has not been able to read the file
material since it is all written in Ukrainian or Russian which he doesn’t
understand and that was why her client had remained in jail.
“We heard she wanted to be paid
$10,000 when she had not even been able to secure bail for her client who has
been in detention for more than six months” an irate Nigerian told African
Outlook wondering whether the lawyer was capable of defending Olasunkanmi.
Another source also told African
Outlook that one of the attackers’s family who has a connection with the
Ukrainian police may have been the reason why the Nigerian student was being
detained without trial.
“They went to the hospital and
documents were secured for infliction of wounds. I learnt that one of the
supposed victim (Ukrainian) has a police relative or parent, and so vowed to
deal ruthlessly with Olasunkanmi” a Nigerian student quoted one narrator as
saying while lamenting that the Nigerian embassy’s representative came to visit
Olasunkanmi in jail once but did not return again after the first visit.
But an embassy spokesperson who
pleaded anonymity (because he is not authorized to comment on the case) told
African Outlook that the Nigerian consulate had not abandoned the Nigerian to
his fate “We are in torch with the Ukrainian authority and we have been doing
everything to ensure the boy is released unconditionally using diplomatic
channel” he said, adding that the Olasunkanmi was being charged for attempted
murder, an offense which under Ukrainian law is not bailable.
“There are ways in which we handle
cases like this so that we would not appear to be hostile or criticizing our
host countries’ laws” the embassy staff said while assuring that he was
confident Olasunkanmi would be released soon.
When asked if the embassy has been
able to secure the service of an attorney for the Nigerian student, the embassy
staff said: “It is not within our mandate to pay for attorney’s fees for any
Nigerian in distress, you may check this out with other Nigerian embassies
abroad, but we have been working with the Nigerian community leaders here to
ensure that we do everything within our means to help Olasunkanmi in time of
his need” the staff added hinting that the representative of the embassy was at
the May 3 hearing.
In a related development African
Outlook gathered that a 28-year-old Nigerian student of Kharkiv National Radio
Electronic University is in intensive care unit with knife injuries to his neck
following an attack on him by people believed to be racists.
Another 19-year-old Nigerian student
from the Poltava Agrarian Academy is also lying critically ill in the Ukrainian
hospital following knife injury inflicted on him by yet to be identified
persons.
African Outlook gathered that the
two Nigerian students were attacked late in the evenings by assailants who fled
the scene immediately after the attacks.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s
Office in Ukraine are treating both cases as attempted murder motivated by
racial intolerance.
Speaking on the two recent attacks,
the Nigerian embassy said they were yet to be briefed on the case.
There’s a #FreeOlaolu page on
Facebook..you can go there to show support - Facebook.com/FreeOlaolu
Source: LindaIkejiBlog
No comments:
Post a Comment