South African police kill another Nigerian in Western Cape by suffocating him to death

NIGERIAN community leaders in South Africa have revealed that compatriot Uchena Eloh has just been killed in the Western Cape Province by policemen who suffocated him while he was in their custody.

Over recent years, incidences of Nigerians being killed in South Africa has been on the rise as the growth in xenophobia in the country has led to increased attacks on African migrants. In this latest attack, Kanayo Onwumelu, the chairman of the Western Cape chapter of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, said that Mr Eloh, who hailed from Eziagu in Eziagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, was strangled to death.

Mr Onwumelu said: “We want to call the attention of the Nigerian government to the senseless killing of innocent Nigerians by the police in South Africa. At about 11am South African time on Wednesday, a Nigerian, Uchenna Emmanuel Eloh, popularly known as Monkey, was killed by a South African police officer.

“He was walking out of his house towards the bus station when a police van stopped to search him, suspecting that he might be in possession of an illegal substance. Three policemen accosted Eloh, one of them, by the name Williams, held him by the neck suspecting that he swallowed a substance, while another police officer held him by the legs.”

He alleged that the policemen dragged Mr Eloh on the ground until he started foaming and suffocated to death on the spot. Mr Onwumelu pointed out that the union has engaged a lawyer to take up the case against South African Police Service.

“This is not the first time such a senseless killing of an innocent Nigerian has been carried out by South African police officers. We have reported similar killings to the South African government and Nigeria High Commission in South Africa and nothing was done to bring the culprits to book.

“We want the Nigerian government to intervene to stop this brutality against innocent Nigerians and stop killing Nigerians out of hatred, racism or xenophobia.

Ikechukwu Anyene, the president of the Nigerian Union in South Africa, added:“Our government needs to do something urgently to make it clear that Nigerian lives matter. We have made suggestions on what can be done but it is now clear to us that the endless talks cannot yield any positive result."