- Mrs Dabiri-Erewa had previously drawn criticism for claiming that 20 of 21 Nigerians on death row in Indonesia were from a South East State
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), on Wednesday amplified a derogatory X post that referred to Igbos, Nigerian citizens of South East extraction who are also residents of all States in Nigeria and Diaspora as monkeys and gorillas.
Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s journey to amplifying the anti-Igbo slant began on Monday when she posted a video of a trafficked girl she identified as Mercy, who was rescued from Libya.
In reaction to Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s post, an X user, Wale Akere, posting via @akerele_s, lauded the NIDCOM boss for her work while berating Igbos as “monkeys, children of gorillas and bustards.”
“My sister you are doing well allow those monkeys to continue to make unnecessary noises they are born to be ungrateful people. Those animals tagging you they are children of gorilla history told us about them. Kudos to you madam @abikedabiri. @Voiceofigbos see what my sister has done omo ale jatijati,” @akerele_s posted.
In apparent approval of @akerele_s’s toxic post, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa reposted it with memes of laughter, amplifying the message. On Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s timeline, the post has been viewed by over 15,000 people, gathering more than 53 reposts and over 100 comments.
Some X users berated Mrs Dabiri-Erewa for amplifying a derogatory post calling Igbos monkeys, saying it further deepened divisive ethnic and tribal tensions.
Reacting to the post on Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s timeline, @O.David09926893 said: “This is the lowest I have ever seen in the history of Nigeria!!!”
@fybebreed said: “I thought this page was being handled by a responsible Woman but seriously I see it’s for her tribe interest. And we will respond to you as a tribal bigot.”
Another X user, @MrOzor1, said: “One useless fellow who happened to be pushed into the corridors of authority. You never disappoint. You always show the stuff you are made of, a concatenation of vicious and virulent characters hidden behind makeups.”
Of course, following the backlash, Wale S Akerele@akerele_s has pulled down the post and Dabiri-Erewa’s anti-Igbo support reaction.
This is not the first time Dabiri-Erewa, an indigene of Lagos State, former star journalist with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and ex-member of the House of Representatives has been criticised for anti-Igbo slants.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission had been drawn out by a group, Igbos in Diaspora, who accused the Commission of bias in handling hate speech incidents, personally expressing their disapproval that Mrs Dabiri-Erewa delayed her response to comments made by Kingsley Ugiagbe, who had threatened to kill Nigerians of Igbo extraction in Austria, compared to the hate speech made by Amaka Sonnberger, who advocated for the poisoning of Yorubas and the people of Benin, in Canada.
Again, in late April 2023, following the rescue of Nigerians trapped in Sudan at the outbreak of the Sudanese civil war, an Igbo group, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, (COSEYL), demanded that the chairperson of Nigerians In Diaspora Commission be sacked and prosecuted for displaying wickedness and inhumanity against Igbo population who were among those trapped in the war-torn country.
The group, in a statement by its President Goodluck Ibem said it was “alarmed over the inhuman and wicked treatment meted out to Nigerians of Igbo origin by Dabiri-Erewa wherein she and her team ordered all the Igbos who had entered the rescue bus sent by the Federal government to Sudan to come down while conveying Nigerians who are not of Igbo origin. This is barbaric and wickedness of the highest order against humanity and we condemn it in its entirety.”
Regretting that Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who is paid by tax payers money which Igbos are among, will segregate against the same people contributing for her salaries and allowances, stating that “this evil and unpatriotic act against fellow Nigerians which she was employed to serve must never go unpunished.”
On Sunday August 3, 2025, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, in an interview on Arise TV, said 20 of the 21 citizens on death row in Indonesia were from a State in South East Nigeria.
Speaking on the interventions of her agency in the recent protests against Igbos in Ghana, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa responded: “The tribe you mention will ask if it’s because of us. No. Like I said, crime has no federal character.”
Citing her experience in Indonesia as an example, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said, “We had 21 Nigerians on death row. We went to the Indonesian prison and begged them; they said, ‘No, our law is law.’ Four were executed.”
She added, “You know what? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Out of 21 of them, 20 were from one state in the South-East. The other one is from Edo State. But that does not mean you should generalise that everyone from that state is a criminal.”
