Delta State Government and the state Police Command, yesterday, aborted moves by members of the National Association of Nigeria Students, NANS, Zone B, to attack Shoprite and other companies with South African interest in the South-South and South-East regions.
According to the Vanguard, the aborted attacks by the students body was meant to be in retaliation of the killings of Nigerians and other blacks in South Africa.
But the state government and Police authorities who got wind of the planned attack by the students, led by the zonal coordinator, Pedro Obi, intervened and appealed to them to shelve the picketing of firms with South African interest in the two geo-political zones.
Speaking to newsmen after the aborted protest, Obi said the students succumbed because of the regard they have for the state government and Police authorities, adding that Shoprite and other companies with South African interest also have “Nigerian interests and we are not ready to put more Nigerians into further hardship.”
Condemning the xenophobic attacks, Obi frowned at the nonchalant attitude of the South African government to the killings of Nigerians in that country.
He urged President Jacob Zuma to stop playing politics with the lives of innocent Nigerians and frowned at the “snail pace of the Nigerian government in handling the xenophobic attacks.”
It will be recalled that the national leadership of NANS had last month mobilized students against businesses with South African interests in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in the wake of the killings of Nigerians in South Africa.