FG: Jonathan Was Not Snubbed By Moroccan King

                                                                          President Goodluck Jonathan

•   Appeals for clemency for three Nigerians on death row in Indonesia

By Damilola Oyedele in Abuja

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted some media reports that President Goodluck Jonathan was snubbed by King Mohammed VI of Morocco when the latter purportedly refused to speak to the president on the phone.

Some news reports had quoted a statement from the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry as stating that the king had refused to speak to Jonathan, adding that it was an inappropriate move by the Nigerian leader to curry electoral favours just weeks before a crucial poll.
The statement explained that the monarch rejected the request for a phone conversation and the sending of a Nigerian envoy to the country because Mohammed VI viewed the overture as an attempt by Jonathan to take advantage of Morocco’s influence to secure Muslim votes in the forthcoming Nigerian election.

However, in a statement yesterday, the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the president did speak with the Moroccan monarch, adding: “Since the King was in France and not in Morocco, both leaders spoke extensively over the phone on matters of mutual interest and concern that have nothing to do with the conduct of re-scheduled elections in Nigeria.

“It is therefore preposterous to suggest that Mr. President’s telephone call to the Moroccan monarch was intended to confer any electoral advantage to the president.”
The ministry asked the media to exercise greater restraint and circumspection in the use of foreign sources for news developments in Nigeria.

In another development, the federal government has appealed to the government of Indonesia to spare the lives of three Nigerian citizens who face imminent execution for drug-related offences in Indonesia.

Mr. Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise (39), Mr. Okwudili Oyatanze (40) and Spanish born Nigerian, Mr. Raheem Agbaje Salami (45) have exhausted their legal appeals and have had their clemency requests rejected by Indonesian President, Joko Widodo.
Banking on the robust bilateral relationship it enjoys with the Asian nation, Nigeria is asking that their death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Danjuma Sheni, at a meeting with the High Commissioner of Indonesia to Nigeria, Mr. Harry Purwanto, in Abuja yesterday also called for the finalisation of a Prisoners’ Transfer Agreement (PTA) which is currently being discussed between both countries.

“We understand that Salami has been moved to an island where he would be executed. We understand that all of them have gone through the judicial process, but we want to appeal through you to your government, please commute their sentences to life imprisonment,” he said.
Two Nigerians, Mr. Daniel Enemuo and Mr. Solomon Chibuike Okafor were executed by Indonesia in January.