The senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, has charged President Bola Tinubu-led government to sieze profit of  South African companies in Nigeria and use it to compensate compatriots who suffered losses due to xenophobic attacks.

Mr Oshiomhole made this call during plenary in the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday, a few days after the South African government said Nigerians who left their property behind while escaping xenophobic attacks would not be compensated. 

“Following comments by the South African minister to the effect that compensation will not be paid to those Nigerians whose properties were looted, shops burned and lives even lost, the government of Nigeria should reciprocate by appropriating the profit accrued from South African companies, including their banks, Stanbic IBTC and use the money to pay Nigerians,” Mr Oshiomhole said.

The senator argued that the way to reciprocate South Africa’s hostility against  Nigerians was by using the profit made by South African companies based in Nigeria to compensate the vict xenophobia victims.

Mr Oshiomhole stated, “We cannot allow a situation where our people take taxpayers’ money to pay compensation while South African investment and profit is being taken away untouched.

“I urge that the profit be appropriated and used to settle those who have been brutally attacked, whose businesses have been bombed and whose lives have been lost. This does not require any further investigation because the facts are self-evident.”

Over the weekend, the South African authorities pushed back against Nigeria’s demand for compensation for Nigerians forced to leave their property behind in the rainbow country amid raging attacks on migrants by xenophobes.

The South African Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said “If you own a property in South Africa, it’s registered. Those who leave their properties, if they are properly legally registered in the country, they can dispose of the properties in the property market in SA, whether it’s a movable or immovable property.”

She added, “informal squatter camps and settlements are never properties because they are illegal in the country. So you are already violating our law if you tell us about a shack in an informal settlement. So there is no compensation that will come from government.”