Xenophobia: Reps to invite Onyeama, Dabiri, others

The House of Representatives has announced that it will invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and the Chairman of the Nigerian Diaspora commission, Abike Dabiri over the Xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja.

According to the Speaker, the interface with the aforementioned government officials will allow the House to demand for repatriation and compensation for those people who suffered losses.

He said, “This will allow the government to more accurately demand reparations to compensate our citizens who suffered in this recent orgy of violence. The House of Representatives is ready to authorise legal funding for those citizens who wish to take legal action against identified perpetrators of the violence as well as those who sponsored them or permitted their actions to occur and to continue.

“We recognise that there are many places in the world right now where internal crises and conflicts have made the terrain unsafe for our citizens there.”

He added that the House will be willing to provide supports to people who are willing to help in bringing home Nigerians who are willing to come back home.

“The House of Representatives will work with all the stakeholders within and outside government to evolve and implement a plan to evacuate our people from these places and as much as possible keep them out of harm’s way.

“We must accept that there are at this moment in time several forces converging in different parts of the world, creating seismic events over which we have limited control yet may not entirely escape the worst consequences of.”