Following the summons Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama served on Indonesian ambassador to Nigeria last week, the two countries have taken a hard defence posture on the incident that saw Nigerian diplomat brutalized by Indonesian immigration agents.
Indonesian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Usra Harahap, told Onyeama, in Abuja Thursday that the Nigerian diplomat, Abdulraham Ibrahim, was the aggressor in the incident.
According to the Indonesian high commissioner, when immigration officers met with Mr Ibrahim during a surveillance, and politely requested him to show his travel document, the Nigerian said it was in his room.
‘Can we see your travel document to check the residence permit and if there are no problems with the document, so you may continue your activities,” the officer asked.
“Mr Ibrahim was not willing to show his passport and said to the officer, ‘you will know who really I am and be careful on that.
“Instead of showing his identity card, Mr Ibrahim was angry and said, ‘Just arrest me and you will regret to know who really I am.’
“The officer said, ‘We will not detain you further sir, if you can show us your identity card.’ Then Mr Ibrahim said, ‘Where is your car, I’ll come to your office.’
“On the way to the immigration office in South Jakarta, several incidents happened. Mr Ibrahim elbowed the immigration officer, Mr Laode Hauzan Baidi, who was sitting next to him until Mr Laode’s lip was bleeding.
“This led to other officers restraining him from attacking another officer during the trip.”
The high commissioner didn’t present any material evidence to substantiate this while the video of how Ibrahim was pinned down in Jakarta trends online.
Nigeria has recalled its high commissioner, Usman Ogar, and Ibrahim.
The ministry says Nigeria’s position will be made known later.