The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said, Nigerian singers, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems and Stanley Omah Didia, known as Omah Lay, should not be blamed for their experience in Uganda.
She disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Hard Copy in Abuja on Friday.
She said, “Some people said they committed a crime. In this case, I am sure if they had known, they would not have gone,
“Ignorance is not an excuse, they listened to the organizers. I don’t think we can blame them for what happened.”
According to her, the release of the artistes followed diplomatic engagements between the Nigerian government and that of the Ugandan.
She buttressed that when the Federal Government heard the news of their arrest, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, contacted his counterpart in Uganda to fast-track their release.
She added that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration also got in touch with the Uganda High Commission in Nigeria, Nelson Ocheger, who she said was out of the country when they were arrested.
To avoid such recurrence, Dabiri-Erewa urged Nigerian stars and citizens to always notify the Nigerian Embassy of their presence abroad and when out of the country.
She emphasized that the move is necessary because if the two artists had registered their presence in the Nigerian High Commission in Uganda, they would not have been in such trouble.
According to her, “Anybody that travels abroad, have faith in the mission. If the Nigerian mission had known that two of our biggest artistes were in town and they just made their presence known, maybe that would not have happened.
“Anytime you travel, especially there are super stars. Let the mission know that you are there. We get the response that, ‘oh they don’t listen to us.’ But let them know.”
Her comments is coming three days after the Ugandan authorities dropped the charges against the popular artists, after they have spent three days in detention.
They were arrested on December 12 and charged before a Chief Magistrates Court in Makindye for breaching the country’s COVID-19 guidelines.
