The Nigerian Citizens Association of South Africa (NICASA) has condemned South African police for allegedly killing a Nigerian, Kingsley Ezeh.
Ezeh, who was from Oduma in Enugu’s Aninri Local Government, is survived by his wife and children.
The latest incident occurred after the death in June 2021 of another Nigerian, Stanley Igwe.
Read Also: FG appears to review the secondary school curriculum
Igwe, from Amandugba village in Imo’s Isu Local Government Area, died in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) are taking laws into their own hands, according to NICASA President Benjamin Okoli, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
They broke into Ezeh’s Tyre shop late on January 4th, according to Okoli, and allegedly manhandled gim during interrogation.
The body accused the cops of choking the victim after stopping him in an unmarked black BMW vehicle with his brother, who had been arrested earlier at a different location.
The mystery will be solved by a police investigation, according to the president, because Ezeh’s shop is equipped with a CCTV camera.
Read Also: COVID-19 kills 27 people in five days – NCDC
He quoted the deceased’s brother as saying that security operatives choked him for several minutes before asking him to vomit what they thought he swallowed.
“Two other Nigerians in the area had allegedly accused the same group of Metro Police officers of attacking them using plastic bags to cover their heads only a few months ago, and they were almost killed.”
“Both Nigerians claimed that nothing was found on them during the attack; the police stopped them while driving after searching their cars and finding nothing, and insisted on extorting money from them.”
Okoli claims that when they refused to pay the bribe, the officers assaulted them and nearly killed them with the plastic used to suffocate them. They were also allegedly robbed of their cell phones and cash.
“We’re currently discussing with these two Nigerians how we can link their case to this death as evidence of a pattern of attacks by these Metro Police groups on Nigerians,” says the statement.
Read Also: Rwandan expels from Burundi after refusing to take Covid Jabs
“When the Metro Police came into his shop, they claimed that the late Ezeh ingested a substance they suspected was narcotic, and that he suffocated from the substance he ingested.”
“Paramedics were dispatched to the shop, where he was pronounced dead on the scene; NICASA leadership kept a close eye on the situation and ensured that protocols for securing evidence were followed,” he added.
Ezeh’s death, according to Nigerians in South Africa, was yet another case of unnecessary and systemic xenophobia.
