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FG kicks as Nigerian wrongly jailed in Cote D’Ivoire dies

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The Federal Government of Nigeria has demanded for full autopsy on the sudden and mysterious death of Itunnu Babalola, a Nigerian wrongly sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Côte D’Ivoire for alleged human trafficking.

This was contained in a statement by the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

The statement, released by the Commission’s Head of Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, stated that Babalola’s case was drawn to the attention of NIDCOM about five months ago.

Dabiri-Erewa described the death of Babalola as a tragic blow at a time the Nigerian mission in Côte Divoire had paid and engaged the services of a lawyer to handle the appeal.

She said: “Unfortunately, Itunnu died abruptly while all hands were on deck to seek both legal and diplomatic intervention for her by Nigeria.”

Babalola was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for an offence she did not apparently commit.

She had accused an Ivorian of robbery at her residence and insisted on filing a case against him.

The accused, who happens to be related to an Ivorian policeman, asked her to drop the case, but she refused.

She went ahead to file charges against him and allegedly used a different name (not her real name) to file the case.

Somehow, a case of robbery which she filed mysteriously turned to a case of human trafficking against her.

She was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, while the Nigerian Mission in Cote Divoire supported by the Nigerian community, got her a lawyer, made part payment of legal fees for the lawyer to appeal the judgment and at the same time seeking diplomatic intervention from the Nigeria Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The staff of the Nigeria mission had also visited Babalola in prison, a distance of over four hours from Abidjan.

While the appeal case was on, Babalola was said to have had complications from diabetes and was rushed to the hospital.

The fees for the treatment was paid by the Nigerian mission through the lawyer whose services were engaged by the mission.

She reportedly died suddenly after a few days of admission at the Hospital.

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