“May Nigeria not Happen to You”: The Sad End of Itunu Babalola

It was in March that Nigerian investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, broke the news of Oyo State-born Nigerian woman wrongfully incarcerated in Ivory Coast through a Twitter thread. Her name is Itunu Babalola, a 21-year old trader in Bondoukou, a suburb in the Francophone country.

Itunu’s journey to prison started in 2019 after her home was burgled, and items such as TV and gas cooker were stolen. She was away in Nigeria seeing her parents at the time of the burglary.

“Upon returning, she was informed by a lodger she left in her flat that the thief had been identified,” Hundeyin said in the report. “The thief turned out to be a 14-year old boy who lived nearby. His embarrassed dad apologized and admitted that his son was a habitual thief. The items had already been sold.”

What followed this incident was a sad tale of better-to-be-imagined events that would cut the young life of an innocent girl short.

“Itunu reported this to the police who told her to return on Tuesday Nov 5, 2019. The appointment held on Wednesday Nov 6,” Hundeyin explained. “There she says, the DPO informed her that the suspect was in fact his nephew. He then offered her a settlement worth roughly N100,000 to drop the case.”

In Africa, where nepotism and corruption is a way of life, it is quite common for law enforcement agents to brazenly defend the wrongs of their own, and would go extra miles, including incarcerating or killing the innocent, to achieve their dubious aim. It was the situation in play in Itunu’s case, and unfortunately, she was oblivious of it and turned down the DPO’s offer.

Itunu was arrested the next day and taken to the police station.

“On getting to the station, she was charged with theft – the theft of her own items in her own apartment,” Hundeyin said. A charge that was amended to include human trafficking. Itunu had only two choices – drop the case or rot in jail. The handwriting was boldly written on the wall. There is no sign of justice or righteousness around those who now have Itunu in their grip. She said she overheard an officer saying “Elle es une Nigeriane? Elle mourra ici!” (She is a Nigerian? She will die here!”)

That was an alarming warning Itunu should have heeded and save herself by dropping the case. But naivety, powered by the desire to recover her stolen items, got the better of her. The value of things stolen in her home was N300,000, and the DPO had offered to pay N100,000 in settlement.

“She refused the settlement, citing the disparity between the value of the stolen items and what was offered,” Hundeyin said. What followed her tenacity was a swift move by the DPO and the police to fulfill their “she will die here” promise.

She was speedily convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, then Nigeria happened to her.

In the following months of her conviction, her Nigerian friends in Ivory Coast had tried to help, reaching out to the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan, Ivory Coast capital, to provide her consular assistance, “officials reportedly asked for N400,000 to get her a passport before anything can be done.”

When through the thread, Hundeyin had escalated the matter to the notice of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), the Chairman, ABike Dabiri-Erewa, through a statement signed by Gabriel Odu, promised that the Commission will do its job to secure Itunu’s release.

“It is now confirmed that Itunu Babalola, a Nigerian living in Abidjan, was wrongfully charged and incarcerated for a crime she did not commit… plans are underway to engage the services of a legal Luminary to prove the innocence of Itunu Babalola at the Court of Appeal after the accused had spent two years out of a ten year jail term for an offense she did not commit,” the Commission said in a statement. That was in March this year.

Itunu, now 23, died of diabetes complicated by infection.

In a statement issued by the Commission, after Hundeyin broke the sad news of Itunu’s passing, Dabiri-Erewa said “Itunu died abruptly while all hands were on deck to seek both legal and diplomatic intervention for her Nigeria.” It has been eight months since the news of Itunu’s wrongful conviction was brought to NIDCOM’s attention, which apparently by its standard, was not enough time for the Commission to act on behalf of a Nigerian citizen in trouble.

Yet another Nigerian

Why outrage is pouring in over Itunu’s ordeal isn’t only because of the sad way she ended, it is also because she has added to growing number of Nigerians who become victims of their government’s insouciance. It is now known as “when Nigeria happens to you,” describing the abandonment Nigerian citizens get when they need their country most, especially in a foreign country.

“It’s only an irresponsible government that cares little the citizens abroad. Worse still, it is only an irresponsible government that doesn’t provide consular assistance for its citizens abroad. Nigeria fails its citizens. Itunu is the latest example of that failure,” Human Rights Lawyer, Abdul Mahmud said.

In his story, “when Abuja follows you to Abidjan”, that narrated Itunu’s ordeal in full, Hundeyin reported how other ECOWAS states regularly get their citizens out of prison in Ivory Coast. A culture many other countries take pride in.

In 2016, Jason Rezaian, an American-Iranian journalist with Washington Post, who was incarcerated in Iran on espionage charges, was released through a diplomatic deal facilitated by the US government. Other such stories, including the October 2020 rescue of an American hostage in Nigeria by US troops, resonates with so many countries who will give it all to save one of their own.

It is the same solicitude care that Nigeria is expected to be offering it’s citizens, using its “giant of Africa” status.

But Nigeria’s Ivorian Embassy is collaborating with gangsters and hostile foreign authorities to extort and exploit Nigerians in a foreign land, the report said. A situation that came to play in Itunu’s case.

The report made mention of an Embassy staffer named Olateju Abdulrazak, who an audio recording exposed demanding N2 million to facilitate Itunu’s freedom. Not surprising though, as it only adds to the many reports of racketeering across Nigerian Embassies around the world, a culture not different from what is practiced in government institutions back home in Nigeria.

As the stories such as Itunu’s hit the gallery every day, the sense of belonging that a nationality offers, which has been significantly dwindling in Nigeria’s passport, fades in the mind of Nigerians. It thus has established the belief ‘no hope of getting help from the government in times of trouble’, for every Nigerian who crosses the border.