Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and Paulinus Aidoghiei, Abuja
Federal Government has described the fresh attack on businesses owned by Nigerians in Witbank in the Mpumalamga district of South Africa, as a criminal act and not xenophobic.
Nigerian Consul General in Johannesburg, Godwin Adama, made the clarification, yesterday.
“There was nothing like xenophobia; this attack was crime-related and it is just that some criminals took advantage of the opportunity to carry out crime,” he said.
Three Nigerians, alongside other foreigners, were reportedly injured in the attacks which took place in different locations of Witbank, Mpumanlaga Province, South Africa.
The consul general said the attack, which occurred at about 9 a.m. on Tuesday, was masterminded by taxi drivers under the guise of fighting crime.
Adama said with the cooperation of the police the matter was resolved in less than an hour.
“We held a meeting with the police authorities and they led us to the place where the attack occurred.
“Although it happened in a different locality (from the previous one), we agreed to meet often to prevent reoccurrence.
“The police promised to invite the taxi drivers association and Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA) to a meeting to discuss and resolve issues amicably.
“There is no problem at the moment and we are monitoring the situation keenly and we have been able to reach a reasonable stage of agreement and help out.
“The government is doing everything here to fight crime. The locals take laws into their hands thinking that the police was not doing enough, which is what mostly leads to attack.
“People feel there is drug or human trafficking and security operatives are not meeting expectations, and so they take laws into their hands in order to fight crime, but it does not work that way.”
He lauded security agencies for cooperating with the Nigerian mission “in tackling issues that affect foreign nationals, particularly Nigerians living in that country.”
He said efforts would be made to preempt and stop any form of attack in future, rather than wait for it to happen.
He said modalities had been put in place to ensure effective implementation of agreements reached by Nigeria and South Africa to prevent all forms of conflict between citizens of the two countries.
“We have draft rules and agreements in place; it is a people-to-people relationship we want to concentrate on. If it is government-to-government we do not have much problem at all.
“It is not a one-day matter to resolve, but such modality requires constant discussion platforms to enable people to be able to interact.
“To be able to arrest crime, it is better to take issues related to crime to the police station, rather than take laws into your hands,” he said.
NICASA also described the fresh attack as worrisome.
President of NICASA, Mr. Ben Okoli, who made this known in a telephone interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday, said the renewed attack was a criminal act.
He said the association and the police in the province held meeting and both visited affected shops, businesses and those admitted in the hospital over some injuries sustained.
Meanwhile, Chairman/CEO Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa has assured that the Federal Government was on top of the situation.
Dabiri-Erewa in a statement by Head of Media Unit, NIDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said ministers of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa will ensure implementation of the Early Warning Signal mechanisms recently signed between both countries in South Africa, as part of the efforts to curb xenophobic attacks.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 3 to 5, led a high powered delegation to South Africa on a two-day state visit on the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians.
Series of agreements and Memorandum of Understanding were signed by the two African states to cement the relationship and nip the hostilities in the bud.