Geoffrey Onyeama: Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday protested against the killing of a Nigerian, Mr Rasaq Ajao, in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa on Thursday.

Amb. Olushola Enikaonolaiye, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  in a statement in Abuja, urged South African authorities to assume their responsibilities in taking proactive measures to prevent such incident.

Enikanolaiye said the deceased was killed by a mob over alleged engagement in drug peddling in Polokwane, Limpopo Province.

He added that “Mr Ajao, an auto mechanic, had lived in South Africa and had been practising his trade for over 10 years without any record of involvement with or in any drug-related transaction.

“The Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria also reported that five other Nigerians were wounded in the mayhem and so far, two of the wounded have been discharged and three still receiving treatment in local hospital.

“Following the unfortunate incident, our High Commission has dispatched a strongly worded letter of protest on the death of Mr Ajao and the continued violence against Nigerians.”

According to him, Federal Government considers this development reprehensible and calls for restraint on the part of its citizens as it continues to engage South African authorities for explanations on the recent incident.

He said the government would continue to pursue the course of justice for the dead and the injured, as well as ensure adequate compensation for victims.

The permanent secretary said Nigeria was prepared to attend the inaugural meeting of the newly-created Early Warning Mechanism scheduled to hold next week in South Africa.

In the same vein, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, had condemned attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, describing it as pathetic.

Dabiri-Erewa said in a statement by her Special Adviser, Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, that `this renewed attacks and killing of Nigerians in South Africa is pathetic,  coming after high level, successful meetings by both the executive and legislative arms of government.”

She urged South Africa to show the political will to deal with the issue by at least punishing the culprits, lamenting that no one had been penalised so far.

She appealed to Nigerians in South Africa to limit themselves to safe surroundings and warned that “this is an attack too many.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Mission in South Africa on Friday said it had waded into issues surrounding  Thursday’s renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.

Amb. Martin Cobham, Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner in South Africa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the telephone from Pretoria that the situation had been brought under control.

Cobham said that the Nigerian mission had formally registered a protest to the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the incident.

He said he had had a meeting with the Nigerian community to determine that only one Nigeria was killed on the account of the melee between local taxi drivers and Nigerians in that province.

He said that the victims would be buried immediately as a Moslem after a post-mortem must have been conducted.

“I want to believe that he would be buried immediately as a Moslem.

“Two other Nigerians who were injured have been treated and discharged from the hospital while three are still receiving treatment there.’’

The envoy said that he had dispatched a senior officer to represent the mission at the funeral of the deceased, and expressed condolences to the family.

He said that he would engage the police in the province on the outcome of the Thursday meeting with a view to stopping further attack on Nigerians.

“The mission is on top of the situation and we assure our people that with the early warning unit in place, a lot will be achieved in this regard,’’ Cobham said. (NAN)