Reports from India indicate that the Federal Government has told India on Tuesday that it feared for the safety of its nationals in Goa following the killing of a Nigerian there and called for immediate action against the culprits one of whom was arrested yesterday.
India arrested 53 Nigerians last week after about 200 of them staged a protest against the killing, chasing a police hearse carrying the corpse and laying the body on the road.
Following the demonstration, which blocked Goa’s main highway for several hours, Goa’s Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar asked police to track down Nigerians living illegally in the former Portuguese colony so that they could be deported.
After the protest, a minister in the state’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government, Dayanand Mandrekar, stirred more controversy by saying: “Nigerians are like cancer”.
Nigeria’s High Commission (embassy) issued a diplomatic note and demanded on Tuesday that the security of its nationals be assured.
“We have lost one of our nationals in a cold-blooded murder,” said commission press spokesman Tokunbo Falohun, calling for justice and compensation for the family of the dead man.
The previous day, another high commission official warned of repercussions against Indians living in Nigeria unless Goa stopped “evicting Nigerians” from the coastal state and caught the killers.
The Indian community is about 35,000 in Nigeria, according to the Indian foreign ministry website.
Asked if there would be any “repercussions” from the murder, Falohun said Tuesday there would be none if Indian authorities dealt properly with the matter.
The Indian government said it was in touch with Abuja and added that Nigeria has sought an official probe.
