EVEN NIGERIANS ARE FEELING "UNSAFE" IN BROTHERLY S.A

Nigerian criminals in SA feeling "insecure"

Nigerians living in SA have welcomed the Nigerian Senate's condemnation of attacks on their fellow citizens in SA, including robberies and "sundry attacks".

This week, Nigerian Senator Grace Bent said the Senate was seriously concerned about the "protracted and unabated intimidation, brutalisation and cases of robbery and sundry attacks on Nigerians, both high and low, in SA".

"These cases are rampant with Nigerians arriving by SAA, Virgin Nigeria and Kenya Airways, and in which cases hoodlums usually dispossess them of their valuables," she said, adding that Nigeria's foreign affairs committee had been ordered to urgently investigate these cases. The Senate also urged its federal government to issue a travel alert, warning its citizens about the incessant attacks on Nigerians travelling in SA.

A recent confidential report by the SA Revenue Service (Sars), leaked to the media, stated that of the 400 cases of airport robbery victims it had probed since January last year, most were Nigerian nationals, followed home from OR Tambo International Airport and robbed outside their destinations.

The motion comes in the same week that a Nigerian computer engineer, Olugbenga Gbonjubola, was robbed after being followed home from the airport. He was in SA for under an hour when two armed men attacked him and his driver before he could check into his Midrand hotel. The robbers escaped with his money, laptop and luggage.

The Border Control Operational Co-ordinating Committee - including the Airports Company SA (Acsa), Sars and the SAPS - insists that organised gangs aren't operating at the airport. Chuks Eresia-Eke, a spokesperson for the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (Nido), and who was last year ambushed in his driveway upon returning from OR Tambo, welcomed the move by his country's senate as "long awaited".

"We, as Nigerian citizens, have been lobbying the government to warn our citizens about the robberies, and this [move by the Senate] is part of the presentations we've made. "It's a very welcome development. Besides the robberies at the airport, it's common knowledge that Nigerians are not treated well here. The stereotype persists that we are all crooks. It's a perception created by the media.

"There are good and bad South Africans - it's the same with Nigerians. "I'm a lecturer in business management at Pretoria University. There are doctors practising here who are doing well. Nigerians are hardworking but find themselves perceived negatively." Omo-Osagie Osazuwa, also of the Nido, commented: "I wouldn't say these [airport] robberies are isolated to Nigerians. But we do know a lot of people robbed from OR Tambo. If it's quite pronounced with Nigerians, and we know it's because Nigerians carry cash.

"Obviously that's an attraction for these criminal elements. "Nigerians are often persecuted in South Africa. There is increasing xenophobia and social bias against Nigerians. "But I travel in and out of South Africa and I haven't experienced any high handed treatment by officials."

Thisday, a Nigerian daily newspaper, quoted Senator Bent as saying: "We're alarmed that the situation has deteriorated to the extent that a week ago, the SA deputy minister for safety and security ordered the police to 'shoot the bastards', referring to armed robbers. "This is evidence of the extent that even the government is feeling helpless about the situation."