The National Association of Seadogs (NAS), has ordered Federal Government of Nigeria to take urgent steps to halt the killings of Nigerians in South Africa following Monday’s xenophobic attack against Nigerians living in the former apartheid enclave.
NAS, which is known as Pyrates Confraternity, lamented that the latest xenophobic attack on innocent Nigerians in South Africa was one too many.
The association called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately address the incessant killings of Nigerians in South Africa through ‘diplomatic response’.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the NAS Capn, Mr Kwaghbunde Gbahabo (Esq), and made available to newsmen in Calabar on Tuesday, the association called on the Federal Government to demand that the government of South Africa should prosecute those responsible for these senseless attacks.
It also demanded for the prosecution of the South African government officials who have openly supported and justified the attacks on Nigerians and other foreigners living in the country.
NAS said the leadership of the country could not afford to fold its arms while fellow African citizens are killed and maimed in South Africa noting that it was not only in South Africa that Nigerians reside and work abroad.
NAS said xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa had assumed a worrisome dimension, “In recent times, xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa have assumed an alarming proportion.
“In fact, there is no period in the last six months that Nigerians working in South Africa have not been attacked.
“The killing of Nigerians and looting of their businesses in South Africa have gone without any meaningful response from the South African Government.
“NAS is pained to observe that the South African government and her security agencies have stood by as if they are helpless to arrest the inhumanity to Nigerians and other foreigners in South Africa.
“This unspoken tacit support by for the South African government for the killing and maiming of foreign nationals resident in South African must be immediately challenged by the Federal Government of Nigeria by a drastic diplomatic response,” the group stated.
