Xenophobic attacks: FG to deploy Nigeria Police to South Africa

Following repeated attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has disclosed that the government will deploy Nigeria police to South Africa in order to stem the tide of the attacks.

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Onyeama who made the disclosure in Abuja when the Federal Government summoned the Acting South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, over the ugly developments in South Africa, noted that there had been another spate of looting and burning of properties belonging to Nigerians in South Africa in recent time.

LIST OF APPLICATIONS FOR REGULARISATION OF AREA COUNCIL LAND DOCUMENTS NULLIFIED/CANCELLED BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF FCT

Onyeama added that as a result of some of the incidents in the past, he undertook a diplomatic shuttle to South Africa, alongside the then Minister of Interior where the Federal Government proposed an Early Warning Mechanism system to check the ugly situation.

LIST OF APPLICATIONS FOR REGULARISATION OF AREA COUNCIL LAND DOCUMENTS NULLIFIED/CANCELLED BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF FCT

Onyeama however regretted that the memorandum of understanding which captured the proposal had not been signed, saying that the disadvantage was that there is no framework for the relevant parties such as high level officials of the South African Government, the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa, the Consulate General of Nigeria in South Africa and the Nigeria Union in South Africa to meet regularly, informing each other of developments regularly, anticipating events and prepared to pre-empt such attacks as being witnessed today, including taking other measures such as compensation, amongst others.

Asked on what proactive measures the government will take if the attacks continued, Onyeama said: “What we are concerned about, the immediate concern, is to have in place, a robust mechanism that will pre-empt 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 Nigeria Police, embedded, attached to the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria and if again the South African Government agrees, that we might even have some Nigeria Police embedded within the South African Police Force to deal with matters concerning Nigerians in South Africa.

“So, Nigerian criminality, as well as South African criminality targeting Nigerians. 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. We believe that if the two sides, South African Government and Nigerian Government are really working together, really want to address this issue and take those particular steps, that it will be very, very much difficult to have the scale of damage that we have witnessed in the past. And if after that there are still attacks, of course we have to reassess the measures that we have taken and see where they need to be improved otherwise,” Onyeama said.