A Nigerian man, identified as Bayo Salami, has cried out over his alleged detention at a prayer centre after returning to Nigeria from the United States, where he had lived for 23 years.
According to Salami, he had recently arrived in Nigeria and asked his family to take him to the house he had been sending money home to build. However, they reportedly told him that the building was still under construction.
He said his family later informed him that they wanted to take him somewhere for prayers before his return abroad. Believing he was going for a prayer session, he agreed to accompany them.
However, Salami alleged that upon arriving at an Islamic cleric’s residence, he was suddenly pushed into a room where several other people were being kept under what he described as terrible living conditions.
He claimed that some of the occupants had been at the facility for periods ranging from six months to one year.
The distressed man said he had spent 17 days at the facility and was allegedly brought there because of his cigarette-smoking habit.
Defending himself, Salami insisted that he was neither a drunkard nor mentally unstable, questioning why smoking cigarettes should warrant his confinement.
He also lamented the condition he had been reduced to, saying he no longer looked like himself.
“I am not insane. I have been abroad for 23 years in total,” he said.
