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Detained FUTO Students Narrate Their Ordeal In Croatia

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Tobi Adebayo

Two students at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Alexander Abia and Eboh Chinedu have explained their story following their return to Nigeria on Friday. 

The students, who were held in a Bosnian immigration camp for about five weeks, said the Croatian police stole money from them.

The table tennis players narrated their situation to newsmen when they were hosted by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission in Abuja on Saturday.

“We travelled to Croatia with a FUTO official called Ms Patience but lost touch with her after we were arrested by the Croatian policemen and deported to Bosnia,” one of the students, Abia narrated.

“We crashed out of the tennis championships in the second stage, so we were supposed to return to Nigeria on November 18, 2019. A day before which is November 17, we decided to look around the city.

“When we were in Pula, we moved around and toured the city. In Zagreb, we decided to look around when a policeman stopped us and demanded to know our identity.

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“We explained to him that we are Nigerians and that we participated in a table tennis championship, but the problem I noticed was that he did not speak English.

“So, he said we should sit on the ground along the road. He made a call and another policeman came and they took us to a police station. They collected our wallets and phones.

“We were detained in a cell and Chinedu fell sick and was vomiting continuously.

“The police refused to listen to our demands for an interpreter. At night, we were marched into a vehicle with tinted glass and driven to the Bosnian borders.

“The trip took over seven hours. We were transferred into another van at a location, with 12 illegal migrants from Pakistan, Indian and other countries.

“They asked everyone to sign a document that was written in their language without translation. I signed it out of fear, but Chinedu refused and the policeman kicked him, cocked his gun and threatened to shoot him. So, he signed.

“They put us back in the van again and drove us for about two hours. When we got to a forest, they ordered everyone out of the van. They gave me a carton containing our phones, belts and wallets and the €310 and $10 dollars were not there,” Abia stated.

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