Greater Noida attack: Nigeria concerned over attack

With Nigeria conveying its concern over recent assaults on its students in India, New Delhi on Thursday said it would continue to welcome people from the West African nation. New Delhi, however, refrained from terming the recent assault on the Nigerians in Greater Noida near the national capital as hate crime or a racially motivated attack.

“Pending the investigation it is not correct to go into the nature and the reason for these particular activities,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay told journalists here. Baglay said the incidents of assault on Africans in India were acts of the uninformed and the misguided few.

“Such acts do not detract from the deep belief of the government and people of India of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family). We will continue to welcome African people, including students and youth, as valuable partners,” he said. B N Reddy, High Commissioner of India to Abuja, was summoned to Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

He was received by Olushola Enikanolaiye, permanent secretary at the ministry, who conveyed Abuja's concern over repeated incidents of its nationals being attacked in India. Nigeria conveyed that it expected the government of India to bring to justice those responsible for the attacks on four students at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

The official told the Indian envoy that the prosecution of the culprits should act as a deterrent to such assaults on Nigerian students in India. Enikanolaiye pointed out that the Greater Noida incident was not the first of its kind as Nigerians in India had also been assaulted in the past, sources told DH.

Reddy briefed Enikanolaiye on the steps taken by the administration of Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh following the assault. The police had registered cases against seven people, five of whom have already been arrested. The police also registered cases against hundreds of unknown people.

A mob assaulted the four Nigerians after some local residents blamed African people studying and living in the city for the death of a local youth, apparently due to narcotics abuse. “The investigation is on and the law of the land will prevail,” Baglay said. He said MEA officials had been in touch with the High Commission of Nigeria in New Delhi.

On the purported attack on a Kenyan woman in Greater Noida, Baglay said the MEA had learnt that incident was not of the nature as reported previously. “There has been a meeting earlier today with Kenyan diplomats. It has been conveyed to us that the understanding of Kenyan authorities is that the reported incident of attack on the Kenyan woman in question does not correspond to reality,” said Baglay.