A member of the Federal House of Representatives, Joseph Bello, has condemned the attack of Nigerian citizens in the renewed xenophobic attack in South Africa.

Bello, who is representing Adavi/Okehi constituency, made the condemnation in a statement.

It will be recalled that the locals in the central city of Pretoria and its neighbouring communities had reportedly attacked foreigners, destroying properties and killing scores of immigrants.

The lawmaker wondered why Nigerians were being treated with hatred in South Africa, describing it as worrisome.

The statement read in part,

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the incessant violent attacks against Nigerians and other black Africans residing and doing businesses in South Africa

“It is ironic that a fellow black person would act wickedly and chase another black person to a point of death by setting them on fire alive without showing any compassion whatsoever.

“The renewed xenophobic attack on foreign black African nationals especially Nigerians in South Africa has become worrisome and compelling for us as Nigerians to speak and act in one voice.

“Over the last 7 years, South Africa has been engulfed in a shameful wave of attacks by the locals against the immigrant population, as Nigerians pay hugely with their lives and material investments.

“These are criminal acts against vulnerable and defenceless people who have sought refuge, solace and economic prosperity in a country that claim to nurture a symbiotic business relationship with Nigeria.

“While I disapprove the recent attacks as evidently seen on various social media platforms and, feedbacks from family and friends who are currently at large in jungles and forest to escape public lynching, I must also warn that the country need to tackle the issue of lynch mobs.

“If you allow that to happen without condemning it outright, without condemning it unconditionally, you sow seeds of reprisal and aggravated genocide. If you have a law enforcement agent who is very influential saying that foreigners must pack their bags and go home, because they constitute 80% of a community, you are not only sowing seed of discord, but also exposing your foreign investments on the soils of those you kill and maim in your delusional fear.

“Need I remind the misguided elements, that South Africa would still have been struggling to eke out a meager existence in the back waters of their own country, had Nigeria not embolden herself and flex her muscles to rescue brother and sister Africans, who were deluged with oppression and humiliation in the southern most tip of the motherland continent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after decades of imprisonment and apartheid.

“While the stakeholders converge, as a matter of urgency to adopt and initiate emergency rescue modalities for our brothers and sisters in South Africa, let me implore my fellow Nigerians to remain calm and show a level of maturity and accommodative spirit that is evidently deficient in South Africa.”

He, however, urged the Federal Government through our Foreign Affairs MInistry to take a definitive measures against the constant reoccurence of this xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other black Africans by engaging more purposefully with the South African government.

“It is my expectation that no criminal that engaged in this nefarious xenophobic attack will go without facing the wrath of law,” he added