A Nigerian lady identified simply as @dunchichi on Twitter, has been sentenced to a one-year jail term in the United Arab Emirates after she posted a video on social media showing how Nigerian nationals were detained and maltreated at the Dubai International Airport.
The viral video that put the lady in trouble was posted on Twitter on August 31, 2022 on the lady’s handle where she described how she and other Nigerians were illegally detained at the airport despite possessing valid visas.
“I’m at Dubai International Airport and myself and some tiger Nigerians with valid visas are being held in a room hours after arriving with no explain and no information on what we can do. Please help me. There’s more than 20 of us,” she had written to accompany the video.
However, on Saturday, another Twitter user with the handle @jerrydoubles, who claimed to be the lady’s relative, took to the platform to announce that @dunchichi had been sent to jail for an offence relating to her earlier post in Dubai which the UAE government say is related to cybercrime.
“It is sad and regrettably heartrending to tell you all that @dunchichi was sentenced on 12th Oct 22, to 1yr in jail in Dubai. Her family are devastated and Nigeria didn’t save her.
“Her sentence came from the backdrop that she got a family visa to travel. But in fact, she was there with her sister. It got messy & complicated, she was released on arrival after being detained for several hours, only to be sentenced when she was returning to Nigeria.
“They are capitalising on the fact that she made a video then posted them on her Twitter timeline to narrate the ordeal. They said it’s cybercrime in their country. She went ahead to delete it. Still, that didn’t soften them. Now she is jailed #justicefordinci,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
He added that the family of the victim is planning to protest at the UAE Embassy in Abuja and called on other interested Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory to join them in the protest.
“If you stay in Abuja or know someone who does and would love to join us,” he tweeted.
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