*.Nigeria will retaliate, envoy says
A Nigerian consular official warned yesterday that
thousands of Indians in Nigeria will be “thrown out on the
streets” if the India police doesn’t stop evicting Nigerians
from their rented homes in Goa, Ummid has reported.
Speaking to IANS after meeting members of the Nigerian
community in Goa, bureaucrats and police officials over
the last two days, consular attache, Jacob Nwadadia, said
the Goa government had until 9 p.m. yesterday to stop
the illegal eviction process.
“There are only 50,000 Nigerians living in India, but there
are over one million Indians living in Nigeria. Thousands of
Indians living there will be thrown out on the streets if
forcible eviction of Nigerians in Goa does not stop,” Jacob
said.
The official said Nigeria was five hours behind Indian
Standard Time and that there would be time for the
Nigerian government to order action against Indians living
there. The Goa government said yesterday it will write to
the Nigerian embassy after a number of Nigerians living in
Goa were found to be using only photocopies of passports
and visas as proof of their nationality, Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar said. Mr Parrikar was speaking to
reporters on the sidelines of a government function at the
secretariat. “We have questioned a lot of Nigerians and
were verifying their documents. Most of them have only
photocopies of their passports and visas.
We are going to ask the Nigerian embassy to verify these
documents,” Mr Parrikar said. This is part of a verification
drive started by the Goa government which will inspect
documents of all foreign nationals living in the state.
The drive was announced after Nigerian nationals blocked
a National Highway Thursday for hours protesting the
murder of a Nigerian by a local drug gang. Both MPs from
the state, as well as many people have been calling for a
boycott of Nigerians living in Goa even as many liberals
have called these statements ‘racist’ in nature.
The Goa government has ordered a crackdown on all
foreigners living in this tourism hub after a bitter clash
between a mob of over 200 Nigerians on one side and
police and locals on the other.
The Nigerians, who were protesting the murder of one of
their compatriots, had blocked National Highway 17 for
several hours, demanding the presence of Nigerian
consular officials for the autopsy proceedings.
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