The federal government has begun moves to save a Nigerian, Suleimon Olufemi, who is on death row in Saudi Arabia.
Olufemi was said to have been arrested 18 years ago having been allegedly involved in a mob action that led to the death of a police officer in Saudi Arabia.
Olufemi was said to be in the kingdom for lesser hajj when the incident occurred.
The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, revealed the efforts of the government to rescue Olufemi when members of his family visited her office to appeal for clemency.
The family’s delegation included the aged parents of Olufemi, as well as his siblings and sister-in-law.
The NIDCOM boss informed the worried delegation that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NIDCOM, the Nigerian Mission in Saudi Arabia, some members of the Diaspora community in Saudi, Amnesty International as well as the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora have all intervened in the matter.
During the visit, the family pleaded passionately for the life of their son.
According to Saudi Arabian law, the daughter of the late officer who was two years old at the time of the incident and is now above 18, would determine if Olufemi should live or die.
Dabiri-Erewa reiterated her advice to Nigerian youths to avoid getting into trouble when they travelled out.
She wondered why a young, promising man who went for Umrah , would allow himself to be dragged into a mob action.
Mr Suleimon Olufemi, an electrician, was born in Lagos on 20 April 1978 and embarked on Umrah to Saudi Arabia in 2002.
On arrival at the airport in Jeddah, Suleimon called his friend, who he was scheduled to stay with in Jeddah, but the phone number was not going through, so he went to a place called Karantina where he met some Nigerians when he could not locate his friend .
Some days after Suleimon arrived in Saudi Arabia, he followed the Nigerians that offered him accommodation to a car wash in the Bab Sharif area of Jeddah, where many African nationals worked as car cleaners but unfortunately, that day, there was a mob action which resulted in the death of a police officer.
Authorities came to raid the location and Suleimon Olufemi and other 12 Nigerians were among those arrested.
He was sentenced to death in May 2005 following a closed trial which took place in the absence of legal or consular representation or adequate interpretation and translation facilities.
The 12 other men, who were initially sentenced to five and seven years imprisonment respectively were later commuted.
Both the 80 years old Yavimaku Olufemi, the father of Suleimon and mother, Kikelomo, appealed to the Saudi authority to tamper justice with mercy and release their son while begging Nigerian government to help them out as they are eager and prayerful that they will set eyes on their son and hope to reunite with him before they die.
