Activist Seeks Presidential Protection For Nigerians Abroad

A rights activist, Mr Alexander Orji, has told President Muhammadu Buhari to proclaim an executive order to deal with the incessant killing of Nigerians in the Diaspora.

Orji, Director-General of the Centre for Protection of Nigerians in the Diaspora, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

His call comes against the backdrop of the persistent killing of Nigerians in overseas countries, especially in South Africa, where hundreds of Nigerians have continued to meet their fate in recent years.

On Aug. 3, a Nigerian, named Benjamin Simeon, 43, from Okposi in Ebonyi was the latest Nigerian to be killed in the former apartheid nation.

Orji lamented that that the killing of Nigerians in the Diaspora had reached an alarming proportion and that the problem needed to be tackled through a presidential proclamation.

“We are now facing an important reality in our life as a nation in the matter of extra-judicial and xenophobic killing of Nigerians in South Africa and the rest of the world.’’

He said that extra-judicial killing of Nigerians had now seemed like a norm, such that Nigerian-on-Nigerian violence had become the order of the day in foreign lands, notably in South Africa.

“A situation where Nigerians are killed both at home and abroad at will without any resulting prosecution or punishment speaks to our humanity and sense of justice as a nation.

“Killings by countries hosting our compatriots will continue, except we are able to stamp our feet that we cannot take it anymore,’’ the activist stated.

Orji urged well-meaning Nigerians to rise up and speak against violence against Nigerians anywhere in the world, especially in African countries.

Records show that up to 127 Nigerians, mainly young people have been killed in South African xenophobic attacks, dating back to 2016.

Thirteen of the Nigerians were reportedly killed by members of the South African Police Force, while some of the people were killed by their fellow Nigerians.

(NAN)