Protesters under the aegis of the Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy Centre on Friday disrupted business activities at the MTN headquarters at Falomo, Lagos, over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
Business activities were stalled for over three hours at the telecommunications company’s premises, a situation which also affected other businesses in the building as the protesters did not allow vehicular movements into the premises.
The protesters expressed their grievances with placards displaying inscriptions such as “Stop xenophobia”, “Stop the killings and looting”, “Let peace reign in Africa”, “Let’s show love to one another” and “Nelson Mandela is our hero”.
President of Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy Centre, Queen Rose Ameh, described the attacks on Nigerians and other African citizens as a barbaric attitude towards fellow human beings, urging that an urgent attention is needed to halt the crisis.
“Killing of innocent Africans living in South Africa is a barbaric attitude towards our fellow human beings,” she said.
She stated that this was not the first time South Africans would attack other Africans.
“It happened about two or three years ago. We went to the South African embassy at the time and shut it down,” she said.
She described the South African Government as an ingrate because of the role Nigeria and other African countries played during the reign of apartheid in the country.
Ameh urged the Nigerian government to develop its country so that no citizen would have any cause to travel to other African countries to suffer.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government may not take punitive measures against South Africa in retaliation for the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians, it was learnt on Saturday.
Senior government officials said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would continue to pursue diplomatic avenues to address the issue.
Specifically, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Olusola Enikanolaiye, confirmed to our correspondent that the Federal Government would continue to pursue a diplomatic solution to the problem.
He said, “There is no plan to carry out any punitive measures against South Africa, we are pursuing diplomatic means to resolve the issue, we have held series of meetings with the South African authorities and the High Commissioner to Nigeria and we are confident that the problem would soon be resolved.”
The Nigeria Immigration Service Public Relations Officer, James Sunday, also explained on Saturday that the agency had not received any directive to target South African nationals for deportation.
He described as false speculation that the NIS would clamp down on citizens of the former apartheid enclave in Nigeria.
“Though deportations of irregular immigrants is done from time to time, it is only those who flout visa regulations that are deported; for now, there is no directive to the service to deport or target South Africans in Nigeria,” Sunday said.
Meanwhile, the South Africa High Commission to Nigeria has said it was working to verify the alleged threats by Niger Delta militants to attack MTN and other South African companies in the country.
The South African envoy, Amb. Lulu Mnguni, explained that the mission had yet to ascertain the authenticity of the threat. -Additional report from Punch.
