Nigerians fight over Swiss money

The Chairman, House of  the Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, on Tuesday claimed  Nigerians in Switzerland fought over the money  made available by the Swiss government for  those to be deported to Nigeria.

Akande-Sadipe, while speaking at the inaugural meeting of the committee in Abuja, said the crisis forced the Swiss government to suspend the migration programme.

The lawmaker noted that one of the responsibilities of the committee was to discuss  with governments, regional and local authorities on diaspora matters.

She said, “I just returned from a NIDO (Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation) conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and I was upset by one of the issues that came. The Swiss government  had given Nigerians in the Diaspora a large sum of money  to relocate Nigerians being deported to set  up (something) for them  upon their return to Nigeria.

“Rather than for our people to collaborate, they started fighting. The Swiss government took the money back. We need to be very actively involved with Nigerians in the diaspora to ensure that situations like that don’t recur.”

She added, “The recent and most unfortunate incident involving a sitting Senator Ike Ekweremadu in Germany and Senator Buruji Kashamu in the United Kingdom are warning signs of dangerous trends;  that this committee must nip in the bud.”

– Punch