Senator Victor Umeh representing Anambra State has revealed the sad story of how a Yoruba man running a restaurant in Johannesburg was arrested illegally and thrown into prison without ever having access to legal representation.
Speaking on Channels TV, Umeh said, “When I was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organizations, I held an interactive session with Nigerians living in South Africa, particularly in Johannesburg, and their stories were heart-wrenching. There was the case of a Yoruba man from southwest Nigeria who was running a restaurant in South Africa. They went to his restaurant, arrested him, took him away, and put him in detention without allowing him access to a lawyer,” he said.
Umeh noted that the man was repeatedly brought before a court with no legal representation until he was eventually imprisoned.
The senator described the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa as a form of barbarism that sits uncomfortably with the international goodwill and support that helped end apartheid and rebuild the country…