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Xenophobia: S’Africa will hear from us! *FG hints on humiliation retaliation
Now that push has come to shove, with hundreds of its citizens being evacuated due to continued xenophobic attacks, Nigeria may be considering retaliatory measures against South Africa over the hostilities, which have intensified in recent months.
Nigerians and other black African migrants in the country, have come under serious attacks, with their businesses being looted by South Africans demonstrating against what the refer as illegal immigrants populating their country.
But Bianca Ojukwu, Minister of Foreign Affairs while expressing the displeasure of Abuja over the development stressed that the actions being directed at black African migrants were particularly troubling given the role they played in supporting South Africa’s struggle against apartheid.
Giving example with the efforts of Nigeria in particular, she said: “Nigeria is not happy because Nigeria has sacrificed much for the South African struggle for independence. Nigeria sacrificed quite a lot, committed funds, committed resources to aid South Africa.
“In schools, seats were reserved for South African students. My own generation, we carried placards. We demonstrated in front of South African assets. Sometimes, we even got arrested for doing this. And Nigeria is a serious frontline state, and Nigerians are not happy about how they have treated us.
“They (South Africans) are not asking other migrants to leave. They’re only asking black migrants to leave. Well, that (retaliation) is a situation that we are considering. This is up to our legislature. This is a decision that has to be taken at the highest level of government, but it’s not off the table.”
Blaming the South African authorities for failing to act, she lamented how the police in particular had always looked the other way while Nigerians were being attacked saying this did not speak well of the country’s attitude to the crisis.
“So, our citizens are imperiled. They are in distress. So, they cannot be said to be illegal migrants. People who are doing legitimate business have their shops looted, they have their shops set on fire,” she added.
The remarks come amid mounting concern over anti-migrant sentiment in South Africa, where Nigerians and other African nationals have increasingly become targets of protests and campaigns demanding the removal of undocumented migrants.
There have been growing concerns over the safety of Nigerians in South Africa following renewed anti-immigrant protests and hostility directed at foreign nationals.
The demonstrations, which have taken place in parts of Pretoria and Johannesburg, have largely focused on undocumented migrants, with protesters accusing them of contributing to unemployment, crime and pressure on public services.
Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) on Monday doubled down on his attack on Atiku Abubakar, whom he a fortnight ago, accused of having sympathy for terrorist rampaging across Nigeria, especially those of Fulani extraction.
The former SGF had recently accused the VP of not condemning the attacks carried out by the group, including kidnap of citizens in various parts of the country and in some cases, actually killing their victims, apart from other acts of outright carnage against communities.
But Atiku, had in a strong rebuttal, dismissed the allegation, stating that the beef with him stemmed from losing out in the last presidential primaries of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where a candidate he had promised the party’s ticket for financial gains, lost the bid.
But unpersuaded, the former SGF claimed that the attempt by the former VP, who is now the candidate of the party, having picked the ticket at the end of the exercise, to extricate himself of complicity fell flat on its face because the only time he spoke against the series of attacks, was to direct his condemnation against the government rather than the perpetrators,
A guest of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, he argued that making general comments condemning insecurity did not equate to specificity in calling out the actual criminals committing the carnage.
Lawal, a prominent member who announced his decision to quit the party a fortnight ago, after accusing the former VP of corrupting the process, said he and other party members had expected a keen contest among the leading aspirants.
Hear him: “Someone like Rotimi Amaechi was very confident that if we go to primaries he would win. Everybody around him was extremely confident that Amaechi would win. And for me, who has been in this process, I was watching the indices to see where his confidence was coming from. Among the three candidates, he was the one moving around, working hard to see that he got the ticket
“Then, we have Atiku Abubakar. That time we used to wonder what is he going to do to win the primary because he was practically not doing much. He was not talking, he was not campaigning, he wasn’t going out. We were wondering how was he going to do it? So, we were watching how it was going to be done. But he ended up manipulating the exercise in his favour.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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