As the attacks on Nigerians worsen in South Africa owing to the ongoing Xenophobic attacks in the country, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, has called on the Nigerian government with specificity to the parliamentary delegation to South Africa to extend its arm of investigation into the condition of Nigerians being held in solitary confinements at various South African prisons.
The group alleged that secret xenophobic attacks are being carried out in the South African prisons which has placed the lives of Nigerians at greater risk.
MEND in its statement listed some Nigerians in South African prisons suspected to be under attack to include its former leader, Henry Okah who is in Korkstad Prison in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province of South Africa.
In the statement released by the group on Saturday, MEND said: “There are hundreds of Nigerians in South Africa who are serving various prison sentences or awaiting trial.
“From the reports available to us, many of these Nigerians are subjected to xenophobic attacks as they are regularly singled out for harassment, on account of their nationality or arbitrarily isolated in solitary confinement, by South African prison officials.
“We, therefore, call on the Nigerian parliamentary delegation to find time to also visit various prison facilities in South Africa where they will, indeed, be confronted with the real victims of xenophobia in South Africa.”
The group added while commiserating with thousands of Nigerians who have been affected in the attacks: “We are constrained to draw the attention of the National Assembly delegation to other variants of xenophobic attacks which are not in the public domain.”