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| Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru |
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday summoned the South African High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mambolo, to protest the recent
deportation of Nigerian travelers to that country.
Mambolo was received by the Permanent
Secretary of the Ministry, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi, who conveyed
Abuja’s displeasure about the matter for onward delivery to Pretoria.
Watchers say that the decision to have
the envoy received by the Permanent Secretary and not the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru, might be government’s way of
letting the South Africans know that the matter is a serious one.
A statement from the ministry issued
late on Monday quoted Uhomoibhi as expressing the Federal Government’s
concern in “the light of what appears to be a targeted maltreatment of
Nigerians on the pretext that they did not have valid yellow fever
vaccines.”
The government demanded an immediate
review of this policy, which it said was baseless because there was no
legitimate concern about an outbreak of yellow fever in Nigeria.
Besides, it said that the World Health Organization had not issued an alert to that effect.
The statement reads in part: “Of
particular concern to the Government was the unwarranted detention of a
Senator of (the) Federal Republic of Nigeria by the South African Port
Health and Immigration Authorities for 48 hours at the Oliver R. Tambo
International Airport in Johannesburg.
“The Permanent Secretary informed the
High Commissioner that South Africans travelling to Nigeria, or those
residing in Nigeria were not required to produce any evidence of
vaccination against yellow fever, or for that matter against
Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, both of which are prevalent in South Africa.”
The Permanent Secretary wondered whether
the latest deportation and similar acts of targeted maltreatment of
Nigerians in South Africa reflected the official position of the
Government of South Africa.
PUNCH NEWSPAPER
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