By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
Over 200 policemen were deployed at the entrance of the Italian Embassy to prevent former Edo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Mr. Osaze Osemwegie Ero from submitting a petition against unlawful arrest, detention and trial to the Italian Prime Minister at the Italian Embassy in Lagos on Thursday.
The document, titled Unlawful Arrest, Detention and Trial of Osaze Osemwegie-Ero and Some Other Nigerians under Article 416bis For Alleged Mafia Offences was eventually submitted to an official of the embassy, after all efforts by officials to redirect Mr. Ero to their Abuja office failed.
Osaze Osemwegie Ero was arrested in Amsterdam in 2019 on charges bordering on money laundering. Upon his release, Mr Ero sought to present a petition dated 23rd August, 2021, through his lawyers to the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, through the Italian Embassy at Eleke Crescent in Lagos.
In the petition, Mr Ero stated that he was arrested while travelling to Berlin Germany in an official capacity to discuss ways to retrieve the stolen artefacts of the people of Edo State.
“I was arrested and detained at Amsterdam and subsequently extradited to Italy where I was tried on trumped up charges of belonging to a mafia organization,” Mr. Ero said in the petition.
Mr. Ero described his trial in Italy like this in the petition:
MY TRIAL IN ITALY
Upon my extradition to Italy, I was charged with belonging to a criminal organisation under Article 416BIS of the Italian Criminal Code before the Honourable Justice Paolo Gallo sitting in Ordinary Court of Torino in the trial constituted as N9005/17 R.G., N13274/18 R.G. G.I.P.
The prosecution team led by Dr. Stefano Castellani stated that the Green Circuit Organisation (GCA) of which I was a member and visited Italy on September 21st 2013, in my capacity as its Vice President, was a Mafia Organisation.
It is pertinent to point out that the GCA is registered in the United Kingdom (as a Charity Organization), in Nigeria (as The Registered Trustees of the Green Circuit Association, the equivalent of a Charity in the United Kingdom), and in Italy as a Charity organization.
Throughout the course of my detention and trial, I was not shown any law or regulation that had outlawed or banned the GCA as a mafia organisation in any part of the world, including Italy. The Prosecution Team led by Dr. Stefano Castellani was well aware of this. They were also made aware of the fact that:
1. I do not and have never resided in Italy or carried out any business there; and
2. That as at the time of my arrest, I was a high-ranking cabinet office holder in the Government of Edo Sate, Nigeria as stated foregoing and that before occupying that position, I had to be cleared by the Nigerian security system without which I could never have been confirmed by the legislature of Edo State to occupy such position; and
3. The reason for my traveling to Italy was to ensure that the legally registered members of the GCA carried on their activities in accordance with the tenets, rules and objectives of the GCA.
In spite of the foregoing, the prosecution team proceeded to try me on the false charges of belonging to a criminal organization and attempted to secure my conviction based on (among other false pieces of evidence) a forged document they called the Green Bible.
The prosecution team had indeed, attempted to browbeat and cajole me into accepting a short trial and pleading guilty to false charges levelled against me with a reward of house arrest.
Realizing that I had done nothing wrong and had not committed any offence under any laws in Nigeria, Italy and indeed elsewhere; and, being of the strong conviction that I was innocent of the charges, I chose the option of a long trial to establish my innocence.
Mr Ero said that after his trial, he was discharged and acquitted of all the charges levelled against him by The Judgment of Honourable Justice Paolo Gallo.
“In the judgment of Honorable Justice Paolo Gallo handed down on 29th May, 2021, His Lordship found and established among other things:
1. That I did not belong to any criminal organization; and
2. The GCA is not a mafia organization; and
3. The Green Bible which was one of the main planks upon which the case of the prosecution was built was a forged document.
“The court finally established that I was innocent of the charges levelled against me,” Mr Ero maintained in his petition.
As a result of his wrongful arrest and prosecution in Italy for 19 months, Mr Ero said he suffered and lost a lot. First, he lost his position as commissioner, was unable to provide for his family and support his aged parents in Nigeria.
Mr Ero also said that he spent quite a fortune “to hire a legal team to defend myself, with help from family and friends. Above all, my family, especially my young children were traumatized and were made to go through a long period of distress and untold hardship in the UK.
“This was made worse by the fact that I was separated from my family at the time they needed me most – throughout the COVID pandemic, which took hundreds of thousands of lives in both Italy and the UK,” Mr Ero said in the petition.
Apart from his own ordeal, Mr. Eros gave details of other Nigerians languishing in Italian jails over trumped-up charges like he was subjected. Details of these Nigerians as contained in Mr. Ero’s petition included the following names who have also been similarly falsely accused, tried (by short trial) and incarcerated in Italian jails under Article 416BIS.
The Nigerians Mr. Ero mentioned in his petition include: (1) Francis Okey Igwema from Anambra State (2) Stanley Amachukwu from Anambra State (3) Anslem Ewa John from Edo State (4) Abebe Jackson from Lagos State (5) Daniel Jude Chike from Imo State (6) Efetobore Oghenetega from Delta (7) Sam Davies Klees from Delta (8) Ataga Kingdom from Edo State (9) Egharuna Kenneth from Edo state and (10) Essien Michael from Akwa Ibom state.
In Mr. Ero’s petition, he alleged that the Prosecution Team led by Dr. Stefano Castellani is intent on persecuting Nigerians in Italy and consequently:
Manipulating the Italian judicial and prosecutorial system to boost his profile by falsely accusing some Nigerians (irrespective of the crime they may or may not have committed) of belonging to mafia organizations prosecuting them;
Unlawfully manufacturing and doctoring evidence (Forged Green Bible) with the sole purpose of jailing those Nigerians; and
3. Unjustly profiling some Nigerians, persecuting them and setting them up to be jailed in Italy under Article 416BIS.
“I am considering laying complaints against the Prosecutor, Dr. Stefano Castellani and others, before the European Human Rights Commission and the Court of Human Rights for gross and unwarranted violation of my fundamental human rights and the rights of some Nigerians who have been erroneously detained in Italian prisons.
“On 28th October 2020, 70 Nigerians were arrested as Mafias and the only evidence that was shown on TV was a kitchen knife and a clip of communal fight (Ijaw and Itsekiri) in Nigeria some years ago. The trial is starting on 17th September 2021.
“On 26th April this year, 51 Nigerians were arrested in Bari for being Nigerian mafias.
“On 26th September 2020, 20 Nigerians were sentenced to 140 years imprisonment and their appeal is starting on 20th September after they have already spent two years in prison. The same forged Green Bible was used against them,” Mr. Ero said in his petition.
Accordingly, Mr. Ero issued the following demands:
The immediate unconditional release of all Nigerians detained across Italy in various prisons falsely accused of belonging to Nigerian Mafia using Article 416BIS
2. Fair and adequate compensation to those Nigerians who have served their various sentences having been unjustly tried and convicted under Article 416BIS of the Italian Criminal Code based on the forged Green Bible.
3. Fair and adequate compensation to those Nigerians, including myself, who were unjustly detained, made to go through the rigours of trial and eventually had the charges of Mafia involvement dismissed.
4. The continuous harassment, profiling, arrest, detention and prosecution of some Nigerians under the guise of Article 416BIS, should stop forthwith because there is nothing like the Nigerian Mafia. A court of competent jurisdiction in Italy has so found.
It is my position that Italy, being a member of the European Union and having subscribed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations should and must follow due process in prosecuting Nigerians and indeed anybody who commits any crime in Italy. Justice must be seen to be done in prosecuting such cases.
Mr. Ero said that if he did not get a satisfactory response to this letter, adequately addressing the issues raised herein within 4 weeks of the receipt of this letter, he would mobilize to carry out peaceful protests at the Italian Embassies worldwide starting from London.
He added that he would take steps to submit a petition to the European Parliament in Brussels and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, against the Italian Government and Dr. Stefano Casttelini.
Mr. Ero was a former Honourable Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs Edo State, a high-ranking Cabinet position in the Government of Edo State, Nigeria.
“In that capacity, I was in charge of promoting the culture and tourism in Edo State and taking charge of the affairs of Edo people in the diaspora on behalf of the Government of Edo State with a direct reporting relationship to the Governor who is the Chief Executive Officer of the State.”
Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, he lived in London for 22 years, and did not have any record of criminal activity.
After he was arrested in 2019, the media had a field day with reports that he was arrested for laundering $2million on behalf of the Edo state government. Part of the now unfounded rumors included that the said amount was given to him by Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The Obaseki administration issued a statement in 2019 and said “We have learnt about the alleged arrest of the Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Commissioner, Osaze Osemwingie-Ero, from unreliable sources on social media and we are unable to confirm either the alleged arrest or what might have led to it.
“But we can confirm without equivocation that whatever the issues might be, they are totally personal and have nothing whatsoever to do with the Edo state government or Governor Godwin Obaseki.”
Since returning back home from his ordeal in Italy, Mr. Ero had hinted that over 300 Nigerians were wasting in jail in Italy for mafia-related, trumped up charges.
In a report by Alltimepost.com of July 24, 2021, titled Over 300 Nigerians wasting away in Italian Jail for Mafia-related trumped up charges, Ex Comm Osemwingie reveals, Mr. Ero had said that “as a senior government official, there was no support from the Nigerian government during my ordeal in Italy.
“I have spoken to the chairperson of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, who is very proactive and vocal, and she is ready to work with us to ensure that those people are released.”
Some Nigerians in Italy under the aegis of National Union of Nigerian Associations in Italy, NUNAI, said that Ero was not being truthful. In a statement signed by its welfare officer, Michael Oputteh, the group said that “Italian authorities have never targeted Nigerians for any harassment nor are they engaged in racial discrimination.
Precisely, we have more than 100,000 Nigerians living legally in Italy. These people are engaged in lawful businesses and some have even been integrated into the Italian society and married Italians, while Italians also married Nigerians.”
As things stand however, it is not possible to gauge how the Italian government would respond or react to the Ero petition. Since receiving a copy of the petition from Mr. Ero, Alltimepost.cm has tried for the umpteenth time to get the side of the Italian Embassy on this matter. All the lines rang out. When we tried to call much later, the lines were all switched off.
Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku is Alltimepost Special Correspondent in Nigeria and Editor in Chief of Wadonor, a cultural voice of the Niger Delta.
