Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Africa

South Africa Urged To Prosecute Attackers On Nigerian Immigrants

President Jacob Zuma responds to questions in the National Assembly at Parliament, Cape Town, Wednesday, 11 March 2015. Picture: Department of Communications (DoC)/SAPA

A retired Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Bulus Lolo, has urged the South African Government to prosecute perpetrators of the attacks on foreign citizens in the country and compensate victims accordingly.

Lolo, a former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He described the attacks as unfortunate, saying, “the relations between Nigeria and South Africa ought to be at a level where there is mutual trust between both countries and mutual interaction between the citizens”.

Some Nigerian citizens have reportedly been victims of attacks by South Africans who blame immigrants for an increase in joblessness and crimes.

Nigerian buildings, property and places of worship worth millions of dollars were destroyed by South Africans on February 5 and 18.

The former permanent secretary attributes the recurrence of the attacks to the failure of the South African Government to adequately educate its citizens on the role

Nigeria played in ending apartheid in South Africa.

He said the government needed to address the root causes that led to attacks by its citizens.

“The people who are rising against foreigners are venting their frustration against the failure of the government to meet their basic needs,” Lolo said.

“My advocacy is that the time has come to make an example of those who take the law in their hands, those who deliberately cause harm to innocent people,” he said.

Lolo, however, said that he did not see any appropriate organ of the African Union that could deal with the issues better than the structure on ground.

He urged both governments to take advantage of the Bi-National Commission between both countries to make and implement decisions that would effectively address the challenge.

He also urged Nigerians in South Africa and the diaspora to be law-abiding.

“If a Nigerian goes to South Africa and his only business is to steal, peddle drugs or commit financial and other crimes, then, he is not a good ambassador because that is not what Nigeria is about.

“In such cases, Nigeria will say, treat such criminal in accordance with South African and international law,” he said.

Analysts have noted that after mass democratization in 1994, the incidence of xenophobia increased; between 2000 and March 2008, at least 67 people died in what were identified as xenophobic attacks.

It is reported that in May 2008, a series of attacks left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens, the attacks were apparently motivated by xenophobia.

In 2015, another nationwide spike in attacks against immigrants in general prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriation of their citizens.

NAN

__________

Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng

Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Related

Big Story

Suspected Boko Haram terrorists on Friday attacked officials of the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade. Premium Times reports that...

News

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have arrested six persons for selling drugs and noodles in a popular garden in Abuja....

News

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has raised the alarm about an imminent attack on Abuja by foreign terrorists. According to a leaked internal memo...

News

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the suspension of the management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC). He approved a new interim governing board to...

Copyright ©