A Nigerian, Dinchi Lar has reportedly been jailed in the United Arab Emirates for tweeting about the horrible experience of Nigerians at the hands of Dubai Airport officials.
The lady reportedly tweeted a picture of herself in a detention room with about 20 other Nigerians.
She had written on August 31: “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”
Her family members are now trying to mobilise support for her release.
A Twitter user with the handle @jerrydoubles, tweeted: “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 cyber crime in their country. She went ahead to delete it. Still, that didn’t soften them. Now she is jailed 💔
“We the family are planning a protest at the Dubai consulate in Abuja.
“If you stay in Abuja or know someone who does and would love to join us, kindly share this with them. Please retweet this.
We want #justicefordinci
We want her released
She is an upright Nigerian citizen 💔”
The tweet has garnered significant support online. There are some not-so-supportive tweets too.
One @OssaBeez tweeted: “As pathetic as the story is, these r d issues;
- She entered the country with forged documentation to obtain a family visa.
- UAE’s cyber crime law; “People who process pix, video of others with d intent of defaming or offending them could face a minimum of one year in prison.”
