Chinese Officials harvesting organs of Nigerians in China prisons

Chinese Officials harvesting  organs of Nigerians in China prisons 

It has been revealed that some Chinese government officials are harvesting the vital organs of Nigerians in Chinese prisons. A civil society group, Patriotic Citizen Initiatives (PCI), therefore called on the Nigerian government to come to the aid of the affected Nigerians.

Reports of organ harvesting from  political prisoners in China have raised increasing concern in the international community in recent years. According to the reports, political prisoners, mainly Falun Gong practitioners, are being executed "on demand" in order to provide organs to recipients. The organ harvesting is said to be taking place both as a result of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong and because of the financial incentives available to the institutions and individuals involved in the trade.

"In China, the wait for a vital organ is less than a month, and over 10,000 organs are transplanted per year. With no effective donation system, where do these organs come from?

"Many are harvested from prisoners of conscience, who are mostly Falun Gong practitioners.

"Transplant abuses of this magnitude are crimes against humanity. Remaining silent in the face of such atrocities is to be complicit in these crimes." —Dr. Arthur Caplan, Dr. Alejandro Centurion, and Dr. Jianchao Xu

Speaking at a stakeholder's forum in Lagos over the weekend, which had in attendance representatives of family members of Nigerians in China prison and recent prison returnees from China, PCI highlighted the awful conditions and experiences of Nigerians languishing in prisons in China.

According to the President of the group, Comrade Osita Osemene, there are about 8000 Nigerians allegedly trapped in China prison who committed immigration offences ranging from invalid travelling documentation, over-staying, smuggling among others.

He also added that despite the fact that some of the offences are drugs-related, most of the allegations are neither properly investigated nor proven, adding that a lot of innocent Nigerian citizens have been unfairly roped into crimes they never committed.

"An average of 40 Nigerians are being executed every year. Nigerians are used for slave labour in prison.

"Many inmates have complained about the mysterious death of Nigerians in various prisons in China. There is also the grave allegation of organs harvesting from Nigerians by Chinese officials in the business of organ trading.

"We are also calling on the government to look into allegations of lack of access to medical facilities, the gross inhuman treatment and lack of fair hearing by Chinese government," he said.

Osemene also added that Nigerians are given life and death sentences in China without proper and fair hearing.

"We hereby urge President Buhari to urgently intervene on this matter by setting up presidential inter-agency assessment delegation to China to properly investigate and ascertain the veracity of the experiences of Nigerians in China prisons and their alleged offences," he said, adding that the office of the SSA to the president on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora should convene special stakeholders/interagency summit on the plights of Nigerians in China prisons, which also should cover other European and Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia.

"The National Assembly, should, as a matter of public importance and urgency, conduct public hearings on this subject matter," Osemene added.