The Nigeria Union South Africa (NUSA) on Thursday announced the death of another Nigerian, Nicholas John, in South Africa, following a vicious attack on foreigners by gangsters in the former apartheid enclave.
The President of NUSA, Mr Collins Mgbo, announced the killing of John in a statement, saying that the victim, an indigene of Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria, was reportedly attacked by a mob at his shop in Kimberly in South Africa’s Northern Cape on Feb. 12.
Records show that South Africa has continued to be the death base of many young Nigerians, who immigrated to that country to find their daily bread with at least 128 Nigerians being killed in the former Rainbow Nation since 2019.
On Dec. 12, 2021, one Olusola Solarin, lost his life after some hoodlums attacked him and collected his money.
Mgbo disclosed that John’s South African wife had put to bed only three months ago.
On the circumstances that led to Nicholas’ death on Tuesday, the NUSA president said that on Feb. 11, he was attacked by a South African gang for allegedly buying a stolen laptop.
He was beaten alongside his friends who they believed was an accomplice, while the South African criminal who stole the laptop and sold to Nicholas was left unharmed.
The NUSA president said that John had battled for survival at the Intensive Care Unit in Kimberley Hospital where he later died.
Mgbo explained that John had bought a stolen laptop from a South African and that the owner of the stolen laptop apprehended the South African, who stole the laptop and that he took them to the Nigerian who bought the stolen laptop.
“The Nigerian, who bought the laptop had apparently sold it to another Nigerian. “They asked him to call the Nigerian he sold it to and he did, but when he arrived, he told them that he didn’t have the laptop anymore but agreed to pay them for it.
“The owner of the laptop agreed but the owner came with a group which wanted to rob John of his phones but he resisted and that’s when they beat him to a comatose state and left him to die.’’
According to Mgbo, other Nigerians at the scene called an ambulance and took John to the hospital but they were informed by the medical doctor at the hospital that his brain had been damaged.