The House of Representatives will send a high-powered delegation to the Government of South Africa following the xenophobic attack by South Africans against Nigerians living in Pretoria. Moving the motion under matters of urgent public importance at the plenary session of Wednesday, February 22nd 2017, Hon. Rita Orji (APC: Lagos) noted that in the last ten days, there had been an eruption of violence in areas such as Pretoria West, a suburb of Johannesburg called rosettensville and some other districts as the residence and properties of Nigerians living there were looted and set ablaze by South African locals.
Hon. Orji was concerned that the attacks being targeted at Nigerians were executed without the intervention of the South African law enforcement agencies. Calling for a swift resolution on the matter, she expressed concern that the attacks could deteriorate into deadly conflicts giving rise to anarchy, if left unchecked.
This is not the first time that xenophobic attacks have been carried out against Nigerians in South Africa. According to a statement credited to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa in a national newspaper, 116 Nigerians had been killed in South Africa over the last two years. The Senate Committee on Diaspor ahad condemned the attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa on Monday 20th February and called on the Federal Government to take a more hard-line approach in dealing with the issue. Presently, the Nigerian Presidency has called on the African Union (AU) and the South African government to take decisive and definitive measures to protect its citizens and other Africans living within South Africa’s borders.
