Two Nigerian businessmen have been reportedly murdered within a space of one week by gunmen suspected to be either robbers or assassins in South Africa.
The victims were Adeniyi Olumoko, a 37-year-old indigene of Ogun State and Christian Onwukaike, a native of Awgbu in the Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra.
According to the Secretary General of the Nigerian Union in Pretoria, Adetola Olubajo, Olumoko was stabbed to death on October 7, 2016, in the Marabastard area in Pretoria by a South African, who forcefully took the victim’s goods without paying.
Olubajo added that Olumoko was left bleeding for up to five hours because paramedics did not show up to attend to him.
On October 16, 2016, the Secretary continued, Onwukaike was shot dead by assailants at Empangeni in the North Coast area of Kwazulu Natal.
The victim reportedly drove himself to the hospital after the shooting and eventually collapsed and died.
A press statement signed by Olubajo declared:
“The Nigeria Union is calling on the Nigerian Mission to demand results of investigations of all murder cases involving Nigerian victims from the South African authority.
The union was not happy that murder cases involving Nigerians in South Africa don’t get solved.
We recommend that the consulate officials visit the area immediately in the company of some members of the national and provincial executives of the Nigeria Union to speak with the police and the Nigerian community.”
This is not the first time Nigerian businessmen have been killed in South Africa where Xenophobia has been on the rise.