XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS: Buhari considers deployment of Nigerian police to S/Africa

The Federal Government of Nigeria, led by President Muhammadu, is currently mulling the deployment of Nigerian police to South Africa over constant attacks on Nigerians in Johannesburg.

This was revealed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Tuesday, when the Acting South African High Commissioner to Nigeria reacted to reports of Xenophobic attacks in his country by anti-foreigner protesters.

According to Onyema, the move to deploy Nigerian policemen to South Africa is part of measures to stop the continuous attacks on Nigerians.

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“We are concerned about, a robust mechanism that will preempt these attacks and if they break out, that will react very, very quickly to put them down and that will also be providing adequate oversight over the security of vulnerable groups such as Nigerians in South Africa.

“So, this is why we feel that as a first step, we send, if the South African Government agrees with us, some Nigerian Police, embedded, attached to the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria and if again the South African Government agrees, that we might even have some Nigerian Police embedded within the South African Police Force to deal with matters concerning Nigerians in South Africa.

“We believe that the advantage of this will be that the law enforcement, the police itself, will have the benefit of Nigeria input in their engagement with Nigeria community and with threats against Nigerian community. And we believe that this will be a game-changer and it will give confidence to the Nigerian community in South Africa and it will also give an added input really to the South African Police because of course, Nigeria Police will understand Nigerians better and will probably be in a position to provide certain intelligence that might not be available to the South African Police.

“So, we believe that it will be a very important synergy in achieving the aims that we want to achieve,” he added.

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