A Nigerian lecturer, Aliya Tijani has been killed by a racist mob in the Bishkek Kyrgyzstan area of Russia.
Although the details and the origin of the attack are not known yet, he is said to have been beaten so badly that he went into a coma after the attack.
Tijani was later rushed to a hospital but despite the attempts made to revive him, he did not recover from the coma and died last night.
Some of his relatives have now begun to demand justice over the racist attack, using the hashtag #JusticeForAliyuTijjani on Twitter.
One Twitter user also shared a video of the moment some health workers tried to stop the lecturer’s head from bleeding.
“When the incident happened, Ali was on the phone to his wife, they were talking about what tablet they wanted to buy for their daughter,” Abubakar’s brother, Abdul-Rahaman, told Eurasianet. “And this guy had been following him from one shopping centre to another. Just so he could work out what was going on, Ali told his wife: ‘I’ll call you back.’”
Abubakar’s death caused enough of a public sensation that the prime minister took the case under his own personal control. But Abdul-Rahaman thinks that the suspected killer is still being shielded by the police.
“Attacks like this happen to us every day. It happened today, it happened yesterday. And what are we supposed to do? Just keep quiet,” he said. “And if you dare say something, they just tell you: ‘Don’t you forget where you are.’”
This sense of indignation has been reflected among many online commentators.
“In the Soviet Union, they taught us well to lie about internationalism, but the truth is that we were and remain, very, unfortunately, a racist society,” wrote Facebook user Ainura Cholponkulova. “There is, of course, a little haven of educated, critically-minded people unburdened by stereotypes, xenophobia and racism. But in general, we are a society of racists.”
See the video below.
Attached is the video were he was assisted by some good samaritans
@Sir_AhmedRufai #JusticeForAliyuTijjani pic.twitter.com/ArmHuINl0r
— Stay Safe (@KakakinArewa) July 4, 2019
My Cousin Aliyu Tijjani was Brutally attacked in Bishkek Kyrgyzstan by a local.https://t.co/z8IMl9mtVD is currently in coma at their national hospital CC @NGRPresident @ProfOsinbajo @abikedabiri @Sir_AhmedRufai @Ayourb @OgbeniDipo @BashirAhmaad @toluogunlesi @DeeOneAyekooto
— Stay Safe (@KakakinArewa) July 4, 2019
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