Former Edo State Commissioner for Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, Osaze Osemwengie-Ero, has disclosed plans to lead a protest to the Italian Embassy within the next four weeks to demand the release of over 300 Nigerian youths illegally detained in Italian prisons for trumped-up charges on mafia-related offences. Osemwengie-Ero returned to Benin City, yesterday after over a year of wrongful detention in Italy.
He said he was a victim of racial discrimination and manipulation of a very corrupt prosecutor of the Italian Justice system as he was on an official trip to Germany, in 2019, to have a meeting on the Benin artifact restitution campaign when he was arrested in Amsterdam and illegally detained by the Italian government. He said:
“We have over 300 Nigerian youths in Italian prisons illegally arrested and incarcerated for false allegations of mafiarelated crimes.
“I have a list of all of them and I am making contact with their families; I made a promise to them that they will not be forgotten.
“We will campaign against the corrupt Italian Justice system and I am going to lead a protest to the Italian Embassy within the next four weeks.”