Saudi Arabia Should Release Nigerians Held In Their Country – Ahmad Lawan

Nigeria’s Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has come out to urge Saudi Arabian government to assist Nigeria in bringing back over ten thousand citizens held in detention in their country.

He recently revealed this when the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Nigeria, Faisal Eebraheem Alghamdi, paid a visit to his office at the National Assembly, Abuja.

According to him, efforts from Nigerian are currently ongoing to evacuate citizens held back in Saudi Arabia, and the nation is doing everything possible to comply with the bilateral and multi-lateral agreements entered into by the Nigerian government.

He added that Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have established a very solid relationship for a long time, therefore an agreement should be reached in no time.

His words, “This legislative arm of government is always conscious of ensuring that our government plays its role in bilateral and multilateral dispositions that our government has decided to go into.”

“Saudi Arabia and Nigeria established a very solid relationship for a long time, and the relationship has been growing every year.”

“I want to assure you that this arm of government will work with you as the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia.”

“We are aware that some of our pilgrims in the past had issues in Saudi Arabia, thousands of them are in detention and, therefore, as a country we have taken conscious decisions to ensure that we continue to educate and enlighten our citizens, especially those going to Saudi Arabia for Ummrah of Hajj, that when they get there, they perform their religious rites and return to Nigeria.”

“This is to minimize and possibly avoid people going there and not coming back. I want to assure you that we will continue to support the National Hajj Commission in educating our pilgrims and, of course, the State Welfare Boards across the country.”

“Our country is also making a lot of efforts to ensure we evacuate our citizens who are now in Saudi Arabia and who we believe should be back home.”

“I want to use this medium to seek the support of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the government to work with us in this respect to get our citizens back.”

“Presently, we have over ten thousand Nigerians who are not registered and who are held in detention. It is our desire to ensure that we get these people out of the country and bring them back home.”