The federal government has warned that the incessant and unjustifiable killing of Nigerians in South Africa will no longer be tolerated “as Nigerians are already running out of patience with the increasing scourge.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who handed down the warning in Abuja yesterday, stated that the xenophobic attacks had reached the tipping point.
Addressing journalists on the increasing attacks against Nigerians in the former apartheid enclave, Dabiri-Erewa stated, “we are reaching a tipping point where one more death of a Nigerian in South Africa will be unbearable to Nigerians. Nigerians are all angry that any more killing of any Nigerian in South Africa will not be tolerated.”
She disclosed that 118 Nigerians had been killed as of 2016 in South Africa, adding that between 2016 till date, an additional 88 Nigerians had been killed in the country.
She called for a thorough investigation into the killings to bring the perpetrators to book.
The NIDCOM boss, however, lamented that some Nigerians have contributed to the attacks as some of the recent killings had been attributed to Nigerians killing their compatriots.
She also called for more investigation into the killing of the deputy Director General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Mrs. Elizabeth Ndubuisi-Chukwu.
“I want to assure you that high-level diplomatic efforts between the Nigerian government and the government of South Africa are ongoing to resolve the matter; we can still make diplomacy work,” she said.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of South African police officers, a former Big Brother Naija reality show housemate, Tayo Faniran, decried his bitter experience in the country.
He attributed xenophobic attacks in the country to lack of information, noting that “many of the South Africans feel they are entitled to hate Nigerians, but with adequate support and cooperation, xenophobia can be eradicated.”
Commenting on the situation, President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Danielson Akpan, said Nigerian students would not sit idly by and watch the dastardly acts of violence continue.
He said, “we have seen the helplessness of the South African government in reining in their citizens and wish to condemn in unambiguous terms the continued pampering of those involved.
“Every nation has her own internal crisis hence no citizen of other nation should be sacrificed for criminal activities of South Africans or any other.
“Since the economic prosperity of Nigerians can no longer be tolerated and their lives secured in South Africa, there’s no need also to condone the continued flourishing of South African businesses and her citizens in Nigeria.
“We, therefore, wish to officially ask all South African-owned businesses in Nigeria to relocate in the next seven days.”
But Abike-Dabiri prevailed on the student leader to shelve the idea, arguing that diplomacy could still provide the solution to the problem, adding that there was no point in taking actions that could escalate the problem.
