The Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa, known as NICASA, has said that a Nigerian identified as Chika Ibe was allegedly killed by members of the South African Police Service at the Pak Sig Vilas complex in Belleville, Cape Town. In a statement, the association said the indigene of Abia state reportedly died after being subjected to severe beating, torture, inhumane treatment and alleged suffocation during a police operation. NICASA said the matter would be pursued vigorously until justice is served.
Speaking on Channels Television's Network Africa programme from Johannesburg, the president of NICASA, Reverend Frank Unyekelu, said the incident had happened the previous afternoon. He explained that he had been notified by the association's provincial leadership in the Western Cape, adding that NICASA has leadership teams working on the ground across all of South Africa's provinces and that his condolences went to the Nigerian community mourning the loss of the young man.
Describing the victim, Unyekelu said Chika Ibe was a businessman who was, in his words, hustling like every other person attending to his business and his shop. He recalled that the young man had returned from Nigeria in January after burying his father, and said that one of Ibe's in-laws had also recently died and was still at the mortuary, painting a picture of a man who had faced repeated personal loss in a short period.
According to the association's president, Ibe had been trying to raise some money from his business before the wave of protests seen earlier in the year began. On the question of the victim's residency status in South Africa, Unyekelu said NICASA was still waiting to obtain his passport in order to confirm whether he was legally resident, noting that the police had ransacked his home and that the whereabouts of his documents were, for the moment, unknown.
Unyekelu said the association was working with the family to recover the victim's documents from his house. He explained that because officers had gone through the property during the operation, personal effects were out of place, which was complicating efforts to establish a full and accurate account of the young man's circumstances and immigration status.
On the question of accountability, the NICASA leader said the death had been reported and that South Africa's police watchdog had been informed as of the previous day. He said the association was hoping that a case of murder or attempted murder, or a formal inquiry, would be opened, and that an official report had been submitted to the police department and its units while the group awaited a response from a police spokesperson.
According to Unyekelu, the South African government had not yet reacted to the death at the time of the interview. He stressed that the association wanted the case treated seriously, and the programme's host also extended condolences to Chika Ibe's family, describing the loss as an unfortunate one for the Nigerian community in the country.
The reported killing comes at a time of heightened tension for foreign nationals in South Africa. On the same programme it was reported that more than 160,000 foreign nationals have fled the country since a June 30 deadline set by vigilante groups, while Ghana has formally requested that allegations of xenophobic attacks in South Africa be placed on the agenda of the next African Union Assembly, a move said to have the backing of West African states.