The Senate Committee on Diaspora has said it will meet the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the killing of Nigerians in South Africa.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Ajibola Basiru, in a statement sent to The Guardian on Tuesday evening, said the committee will meet the ministry to get “briefed and mapping out clear roadmaps to urgently arrest the dastardly acts.”
“If we are not careful as a nation, this issue may escalate into unfathomable row between the two countries with very dire consequences,” Basiru said.
The senator tagged the anti-foreigner violence in South Africa as a “dangerous abyss”, adding that a “show of definitive and concrete effort” by the Nigerian government will ease the sufferings of Nigerians in the hands of hoodlums in South Africa.
Over 50 foreign-owned businesses have been either looted or burnt since the riot began on Sunday while the South African police said five people have been killed in the violence.
The Nigerian government on Tuesday summoned South Africa’s high commissioner, alleging Nigerian-owned businesses have been targeted. It also appealed to Nigerians not to attack the branches of South African companies in Nigeria.
Buhari said sent an envoy to South Africa on Tuesday to “express Nigeria’s displeasure over the treatment of her citizens”.
The government said the special envoys sent will among others demand a compensation payment for Nigerians who have suffered loss in the latest waves of attacks on businesses owned by foreigners.
“It is just those two key issues, the compensation payment and what security mechanism be put in place to make sure that these kinds of attacks do not recur,” Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, Geoffery Onyeama, said on Tuesday.
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