August 11, (THEWILL) – The Association of Foreign Relations Professionals of Nigeria (AFRPN) has asked the Federal Government to urgently declare the staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Nigeria as “persona non grata.”
“Persona non grata” is a diplomatic term connected with the expulsion of a diplomatic agent by the government of a receiving state. The terminology comes from Latin or Roman language and it means ‘person not wanted or undesirable man’ in English.
The AFRPN (an association comprising serving and retired ambassadors) asked the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Usra Harahap, to return to Jakarta “until satisfactory explanation and necessary restitution steps are taken by Indonesian authorities to assuage frayed nerves.”
Describing the assault of a Nigerian Diplomat, Mohammed Buba, by Indonesian Immigration officers as undiplomatic and uncivilised, the group in a statement, issued on Wednesday by its President, Ambassador Gani Lawal, demanded a declaration of Indonesian embassy staff in Nigeria persona non grata, which would lead to their recall to Jakarta.
It also called for the sacking of the immigration officers involved in the assault.
THEWILL reports that a video had shown Buba (a Nigerian Diplomat in Indonesian) being strangulated and pinned down by the Indonesian officers in a moving car.
He could be heard shouting, “I can’t breath,” as the men assaulted him.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, subsequently summoned the Indonesian Envoy on Monday, and also summoned the Nigerian Ambassador to Indonesia home for debriefing on the incident.
But Lawal, in his statement, said the assault on Buba was a violation of Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961.
He said, “The association recommends the immediate disengagement of all the Indonesian immigration officers involved in such uncivilized manner to desecrate the age-long tradition of inviolability of diplomatic agents and their family and property as provided by Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) which states that; ‘Diplomats must not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. They are immune from civil or criminal prosecution.’”
“The AFRPN commends the immediate step taken by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in summoning the Indonesian Ambassador before receiving the full report from its Embassy as a first step in the series of reactions reserved for such a heinous diplomatic blunder.
“Equally commendable is the subsequent step taken by MFA after receiving the missions report by inviting home the Nigerian Ambassador for consultation while expecting the Indonesian Ambassador to toe the diplomatic avenue by equally returning to Jakarta until satisfactory explanation and necessary restitutive steps are taken by Indonesian authorities to assuage frayed nerves.”
The AFRPN said it was awaiting a robust reaction “to serve as deterrent to future occurrence of such treatment to any of our diplomats and embassy home-based staffs and indeed any Nigerian citizen from anywhere across the globe.”
The AFRPN strongly recommended that the family of the concerned Diplomat be adequately compensated materially and health-wise for the traumatic treatment meted to them, while a public apology satisfactory to the Nigerian people and government must be tendered and an assurance against repeat occurrence must be given.
The AFRPN also noted “the position of the House Committee on Diplomatic Relations to move to invoke Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to declare everyone at the Indonesian Embassy in Abuja persona non grata, if their nation’s authorities failed to effectively explain their actions against the Nigerian diplomatic agent.”
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