Seven Poles were detained in Nigeria: six students of Oriental studies at the University of Warsaw and their guardian – a lecturer at the University of Warsaw. They were on a trip there.
The trip of a group of students to Nigeria was organized by the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw. The students and their lecturer left for Africa on 1st August. They planned to return to Poland in early September, the Polish Press Agency found out.
They left the place where they stayed for the night
“Information is being gathered about the whereabouts of the students and the charges against them. Their overnight stay and departure were deemed by the local police to be in violation of local law. Officials from the Faculty of Oriental Studies, where the detained students study,” said University of Warsaw spokeswoman Anna Motselewska.
He added that efforts to free the detainees were still being carried out in cooperation with the Polish embassy on site.
“Releasing UW students is a priority for us. We must do everything we can to do it as soon as possible,” UW Chancellor Aloji Novak wrote in a media release.
University authorities and Oriental Faculty are in constant touch with the students’ families. “We inform the students’ families about all the arrangements,” said Modzelewska.
“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time”
Nigerian authorities have arrested seven Poles during anti-government protests in the country’s north in Kano state in recent days, a spokesman for the security forces told Reuters on Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said, “It’s about a group of students who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They didn’t carry any flags (via Reuters – Ed.) It looks like they’re carrying. They’re not imprisoned, they’ve been in contact with the Nigerian authorities and the students’ families, they’re in a hotel. Stayed.
Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters cited a statement from Poland’s ambassador to Nigeria, Stanislaw Kulinski, who attended the Nigerian foreign minister’s meeting with foreign diplomats in the country’s capital, Abuja. “They were arrested two days ago in Kano and the last I heard they were on a flight from Kano to Abuja,” the embassy said. Gulinski declined to comment further to Reuters.
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