NIGERIAN MAN MURDERED IN INDIA AS TENSIONS RISE WITH RACISM TOWARDS AFRICANS TURN DEADLY

GOA, INDIA

Racist prejudice against black Africans in India has taken a deadly new turn following the murder last week of a Nigerian man who was stabbed to death in the western coastal resort of Goa.
That attack, which also wounded five other Nigerians, represented the culmination of long tensions between local Indians and a small Nigerian community, many of whom are believed to be illegal immigrants.

Police in Goa have made an arrest in the case, but that hasn’t appeased the anger of Nigerians who claim they are subject to constant abuse, prejudice and discrimination from Indians. Agence France Presse described the suspect as an Indian man in his mid-30s who was part of a gang who attacked and killed the Nigerian victim.

A police official said he expected to make additional arrests. Goa News identified the murder victim as Obodo Simon and the first suspect as Surendra Poll.

To protest the killing, some 200 Nigerians blocked the main highway to Goa, leading to the arrest of more than four dozen demonstrators. Goa police have attributed the murder to a conflict between Indian and Nigerian drug dealers, an assertion which led the state’s Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to order police to arrest and deport illegal Nigerian immigrants immediately.

But Nigeria's High Commission in India has called for better protection of its nationals living in India, as well as financial compensation for the family of the murder victim. 

Ndubuisi Vitus Amaku, the Nigerian high commissioner in India, complained to BBC that his countrymen in India feel "aggrieved" over the murderous attack, adding that the order to expel illegal Nigerians from the country only worsens the situation.