The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, Wednesday said the federal government had summoned Nigeria’s Charge D’ Affairs in Tripoli, Libya to come and brief it on details of the plight of Nigerians in Libya, particularly on the sale of some of them into slavery and imprisonment.
According to the minister, who spoke in Abuja at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, when the officer arrives, he will brief the government on the number of Nigerians imprisoned in Libya and how many of them are willing to return home, pointing out that once the figures are established, a meeting would be held with National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on their evacuation in collaboration with International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
He said: “On the issue of Libya, of course, it has been in the news in the last two weeks on trading in slaves; also, the imprisonment in various detention centres of Libya.
“What we have done is that first of all, we have got our Charge D’ Affairs in Tripoli to come to Abuja to give us the full details of what is actually going on there.
“How many Nigerians are in detention and are trying to come home? So, once we establish that and we are given all those facts, we are now meeting with various agencies like NEMA and NAPTIP to now arrange the evacuation process and this will be done in co-ordination with International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and see if we can very quickly repatriate all our Nigerian nationals who are there who want to return home.
“The charge d’ affairs said a number of Nigerians (and not all of them) do not want to come home. Certainly, it has to be those who want to come back home.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said the council approved the establishment of six new private universities in various parts of the country.
However, the minister said the approval was not automatic as the National University Commission (NUC) would not spare any approved institution whose operations falls below laid down standard.
He said there were yet more applications undergoing consideration for approval as he expressed hope that his ministry would yet present another memorandum for the approval of more private universities.
Adamu said: “Today, the Ministry of Education presented a memo for the approval of six new private universities and they were approved. There are some more applications and I believe we will still bring more for Council approvals.
“The NUC is going to take the issue of accreditation very seriously and if any university fails to meet their standard, we are going to deregister their courses and when enough courses are deregistered, it will lead to the closure of the University.”
The newly approved universities include: Admiralty University, Ibusa, Delta State; Spiritan University, Nneochi, Abia State; Precious Cornerstone University, Ibadan, Oyo State; Pamo University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt; Atiba University, Oyo, Oyo State and Eko University of Medical and Health Sciences, Lagos.
