The federal government on Tuesday said it is considering deploying Nigerian police to South Africa as part of measures to stop the continuous attacks on Nigerians in that country.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, stated this when the Acting South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, was summoned to the ministry to protest the continuous attacks on Nigerians.
Speaking on measures the government plans to take to arrest the ugly incidents, the minister said, “What we are concerned about, is to have in place, a robust mechanism that will preempt these attacks and if they break out, that will react very, very quickly to put them down and that will also be providing adequate oversight over the security of vulnerable groups such as Nigerians in South Africa.
“So, this is why we feel that as a first step, we send, if the South African Government agrees with us, some Nigerian Police, embedded, attached to the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria and if again the South African Government agrees, that we might even have some Nigerian Police embedded within the South African Police Force to deal with matters concerning Nigerians in South Africa.
“We believe that the advantage of this will be that the law enforcement, the police itself, will have the benefit of Nigeria input in their engagement with Nigeria community and with threats against Nigerian community. And we believe that this will be a game-changer and it will give confidence to the Nigerian community in South Africa and it will also give an added input really to the South African Police because of course, Nigeria Police will understand Nigerians better and will probably be in a position to provide certain intelligence that might not be available to the South African Police.
“So, we believe that it will be a very important synergy in achieving the aims that we want to achieve.”
In his response, the South African envoy described as quite unfortunate the continued attacks on nationals of Nigeria, with whom his country enjoys friendly relations.
“For us, these are acts that continue to demonstrate that there are criminals within the society that seeks to destabilize the country, there are criminals who seek to create an impression that South Africans do not subscribe to the principle of Ubuntu,” Moroe said.
The South African government, in a statement made available to newsmen through its mission in Nigeria, said 20 individuals have been arrested in KwaZulu-Natal after responding to incidents along major routes and known hotspots in the province.
“These arrests relate to public violence and obstruction of traffic, possession of unlicensed firearms, attempted murder and malicious damage to property.
“In Gauteng, following the violence and looting of shops in Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and the Johannesburg CBD, 70 arrests have been made in connection with public violence, malicious damage to property and theft,” the statement said.
“We are a democratic state that promotes robust dialogue and engagement with the dissatisfied communities. As government, we will not allow anarchy and violence to be the order of the day,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian missions in Pretoria and Johannesburg said they have commenced compiling the list of all the Nigerian victims of the attacks for engagement with the South African government and other stakeholders for succour.
“In this regard, all Nigerian victims of the current attacks are requested to come forward to report their situation to the High Commission and the Consulate,” said a statement by the Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Ambassador Kabiru Bala.
The two missions, he said, would continue to be home to all Nigerians in this trying times and in the future.
He appealed to all Nigerians to remain calm and avoid any precipitate action that may jeopardise the arduous task of engaging the South African government through diplomatic channels to bring the situation under control and to restore normalcy.
“The two Missions are currently working alongside all relevant authorities in South Africa including the police to address the unfortunate situation,” he said.
