By Chinedu Adonu

ENUGU – NATIONAL Association of Nigerian Students, NANS has condemned the continued xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa noting that if such continues, the association will be forced to retaliate.

The secretary general of NANS, zone B, comprising of Southeast and South South, Comr. Victor Ezenagu made this call on Wednesday during a protest organized by the group in Enugu.

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Briefing newsmen shortly after the protest, Comr. Ezenagu disclosed that NANS has over the years been actively involved in giving Nigerians  a sense of direction.

He condemned the recent strangulation of the Deputy Director General of the Chattered Institute of Insurance of Nigeria Mrs Elizabeth Ndubisi in South Africa.

“We stand to state equivocally that no one has the monopoly of violence and that the South Africans has pushed us too far as this will serve as the last warning signal before we give them same dosage of the treatment meted on our brother. We wish to also let South Africans know that any Nigerian killed in south Africa worth five South Africans and five South African business.

“NANS wishes to condemn in strong terms the indiscriminate looting and killing of Nigerian business and citizens in South Africa. The recent strangulation to death of the deputy director general of the chattered Institute of insurance of Nigeria Mrs Elizabeth Ndubisi has again brought to the fore the numerous yet unchecked killings against Nigerian citizens in the once apartheid country”, Ezenagu said.

The group charged the federal government to be firm in stopping the incessant killing of Nigerians in South Africa noting that diplomacy alone cannot solve the problem.

“We would want Nigerian government to know that the diplomatic approach to these killings in South Africa is not really helping out issues. It has become a biannual thing.  Our citizens are killed and our businesses looted while there businesses here enjoy patronage and they make a lot of profit from us.

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“We want the government to adopt better approach; perhaps, they should adopt the approach of NANS. Perhaps confrontation will call the South Africans to order. We call on president Buhari to ensure that we don’t lose any more lives in South Africa.

Comr. Ezenagu who blasted South African government for turning a blind eye to the deliberate attacks, looting and killing of Nigerians, disclosed that NANS can no longer accept excuses for what is incurably a provocation against the sovereign will of Nigerians in a country they defended and helped during the apartheid era.

“It is now crystal clear that the South African government is incapable of accommodating other Africans especially Nigerians in their home country. It is also obvious that the people of South Africa see Nigerians as competitors not as brothers and sisters.

“As Africans, we had expected that South African xenophobic attack on any Africa should have long been repudiated by government and people of South Africa,” he said.

Vanguard