{"id":8723,"date":"2022-06-15T21:08:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T21:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=8723"},"modified":"2022-06-15T21:08:37","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T21:08:37","slug":"cruelty-injustice-nigerian-phd-student-orhions-ewansiha-thomas-died-in-hands-of-malaysia-immigration-officers-for-refusing-bribe-on-time-autopsy-report-victim-cried-begged-for-life-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/cruelty-injustice-nigerian-phd-student-orhions-ewansiha-thomas-died-in-hands-of-malaysia-immigration-officers-for-refusing-bribe-on-time-autopsy-report-victim-cried-begged-for-life-to\/","title":{"rendered":"CRUELTY & INJUSTICE: Nigerian PhD student, ORHIONS EWANSIHA THOMAS died in hands of Malaysia Immigration officers for refusing bribe on time-Autopsy report \u2026 Victim cried, begged for life to be spared, yet refused and mocked *Deceased, obesed made to do frog jump severally in custody, collapsed, refused medication, *Arrested with 19 others by immigration officers at the Desa Aman Puri apartment in Kepong, Selangor, mistaken for undocumented immigrant *\u201cThomas wanted to get his passport from his car near the restaurant but immigration officers mistook it as an attempt to escape. He was taken to the Bukit Jalil immigration depot where the authorities still refused to let him go after verifying his documents to be genuine. The immigration officers demanded a \u2018bribe\u2019 from him to be released. The money was paid but he was still detained at the Bukit Jalil depot\u201d-Eye witness account *\u201cThe death of a Nigerian student at a detention centre was the result of a series of wrongful actions committed by the immigration department in Malaysia. Thomas was an obese person weighing about 130kg but he was forced to do jump squats during the period of his detention which caused him to collapse. He was given the wrong medication for high blood pressure. He had a valid passport and documents but immigration officers still arrested him for inspection of documents\u201d-Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, Attorney for the deceased family *BY NIKE OLUWOLE\/CRIME Correspondent, Malaysia"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRUELTY & INJUSTICE:<\/b><\/p>\n

Nigerian PhD student, ORHIONS EWANSIHA THOMAS died in hands of Malaysia Immigration officers for refusing bribe on time<\/b>-Autopsy report<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2026 Victim cried, begged for life to be spared, yet refused and mocked<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

*Deceased, obese made to do frog jump severally in custody, collapsed, refused medication,\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

*Arrested with 19 others by immigration officers at the Desa Aman Puri apartment in Kepong, Selangor, mistaken for undocumented immigrant<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u201cThomas wanted to get his passport from his car near the restaurant but immigration officers mistook it as an attempt to escape. He was taken to the Bukit Jalil immigration depot where the authorities still refused to let him go after verifying his documents to be genuine. The immigration officers demanded a \u2018bribe\u2019 from him to be released. The money was paid but he was still detained at the Bukit Jalil depot\u201d-Eye witness account<\/b><\/p>\n

*\u201cThe death of a Nigerian student at a detention centre was the result of a series of wrongful actions committed by the immigration department in Malaysia. Thomas was an obese person weighing about 130kg but he was forced to do jump squats during the period of his detention which caused him to collapse. He was given the wrong medication for high blood pressure. He had a valid passport and documents but immigration officers still arrested him for inspection of documents\u201d-Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, Attorney for the deceased family<\/b><\/p>\n

*BY NIKE OLUWOLE\/CRIME Correspondent, Malaysia<\/b><\/p>\n

CORRUPTION is one of the biggest problems facing Malaysia Immigration and no matter how highly placed if you are a foreign immigrant in the country, your life value means nothing to these officers who drive around the country in search of foreigners to arrest just to extort money from them for their own greed. One of such Nigerians who died in the custody of these immigration officials is\u00a0 Orhions Ewansiha Thomas, a PhD student at Limkokwing University taken to the Bukit Jalil immigration depot, locked up and made to do several frog jumps. They demanded money for his freedom. The victim paid the money. He was refused to let go after verifying his documents, until he died in their custody.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest autopsy reports form an independent body by the family now placed the blame at the feet of Malaysia Immigration officials for cruelty, injustice,\u00a0 torture, humiliation of a Nigerian doctoral student.<\/span> Immigration dept responsible for Nigerian student\u2019s death, court told.<\/span><\/p>\n

The High Court was\u00a0 told that the death of a Nigerian student at a detention centre three years ago was the result of a \u201cseries of wrongful actions\u201d committed by the immigration department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, who appeared for Orhions Ewansiha Thomas\u2019 family in their bid to review a coroner\u2019s decision, said that the Nigerian\u2019s misfortune started on July 4, 2019 when he was arrested along with 19 others by immigration officers at the Desa Aman Puri apartment in Kepong, Selangor<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis friend, who was also an inquest witness, told the court that Thomas wanted to get his passport from his car near the restaurant but immigration officers mistook it as an attempt to escape.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a valid passport and documents but immigration (officers) still arrested him for \u2018inspection of documents\u2019,\u201d Rajesh said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He added that Thomas, who was a PhD student at Limkokwing University, was taken to the Bukit Jalil immigration depot where the authorities still refused to let him go after verifying his documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis friend even said that immigration officers demanded a \u2018bribe\u2019 from Thomas so he could be released. The money was paid but he was still detained at the Bukit Jalil depot,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The immigration department reportedly said Thomas had experienced a seizure before his death on July 9, 2019 but denied any foul play.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, the coroner\u2019s court ruled that Thomas died of natural causes and ruled out the involvement of criminal elements.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lawyer then pointed out that Thomas was an obese person weighing about 130kg but he was forced to do jump squats during the period of his detention which caused him to collapse and was also given the wrong medication for his high blood pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Kamarul Aris Kamalluddin told the court that the coroner was right to rule that Thomas died of a heart attack and that no criminal elements were involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he admitted that the authorities might have been \u201cslow\u201d in providing the Nigerian with immediate medical assistance when Thomas fainted in his cell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried their best to give him CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) until the paramedics arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, he could have been saved if immediate assistance was provided,\u201d Kamarul said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kamarul also said that the issue of purported wrongful arrest and assault raised by Thomas\u2019 family is irrelevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe coroner did not make any mention of the deceased (Thomas) being beaten in his report,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Judicial commissioner Azhar Abdul Hamid said that he will inform the family and the prosecution when the court is ready to make a ruling.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Your donation is voluntary \u2014 please decide how much and how often you want to give. For offline donation, email: letters@nigeriastandardnewspaper.com or call +2348037128048 (Nigeria) or +16825834890 (United States of America)<\/b><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CRUELTY & INJUSTICE: Nigerian PhD student, ORHIONS EWANSIHA THOMAS died in hands of Malaysia Immigration officers for refusing bribe on time-Autopsy report \u2026 Victim cried, begged for life to be spared, yet refused and mocked *Deceased, obese made to do frog jump severally in custody, collapsed, refused medication,\u00a0 *Arrested with 19 others by immigration officers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}