Nigerians in India say they live in fear of new attacks as embassy ignores them

Nigerians resident in India have called out to the Nigerian embassy to come to their help as they fear another round of attacks are being planned against them.

The call was made by the Nigeria Citizens Welfare Association (NICWA) Noida/Greater Noida who stated that several appeals to the embassy have yielded no action.

The group lamented, that locals have been gathering and planning attacks, and that Nigerians/Africans are living in fear, that such plans may manifest soon.

According to the group, a number of Nigerians and Africans have been attacked based on mere rumours that they are cannibals, who eat human skin.

They narrated that recently, there were attacks on some people when a young boy went missing, and rumours went round that he had been killed and eaten by the Africans.

Although the boy resurfaced after some time, no apology was tendered to those who had been beaten, or who lost property.

The group also noted that recently, a Nigerian lady narrowly escaped being lynched when she was also accused of eating human flesh, by an Indian woman.

The flesh however turned out out to be that of a chicken, but the lady and the police refused to apologize to the Nigerian lady, who had been harassed and traumatized.

Read also: Nigerian in India escapes mob action over chicken meat

NICWA stated, “please we are requesting the help of so called Nigerian embassy here in India to be sensitive to the issue here, because government sent them here to help and guide us, not only to be giving Indians visa to visit Nigeria.

“And right now Nigerians/African are not safe at all, because the rumours keep increasing. And we all know that this is how the first problem between Nigerians/Africans in greater Noida utter Pradesh started last month after a woman came up with the same accusations of five Nigerian students being cannibals”.

“She accused them of killing and eating the flesh of her son, and filed a complaint to the police against the five students at the Kasna police station. Within 12 hours the missing Indian guy returned back, and police released those five students around 12 noon. Before 4pm the same day a new rumour came out that the Indian guy who went missing and returned home is dead.

“The family filed another case at the same police station against the five students that they are the ones who gave the India guy over dose of drug. Within 24 hours of the rumour locals start gathering and attacked”, NICWA narrated.

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