Chinonso Obiaju, a 17-year-old secondary school pupil, has been killed in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a suspected xenophobic attack.
According to the President of the Nigerian union in South Africa, Adetola Olubajo, Chinonso was shot dead on Saturday, July 20, 2019.
Olubanjo, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said the deceased lived in Roodeprt with his guardian.
According to Olubanjo, his guardian, Mike Nsofor, said Chinonso was shot around 6.30pm.
Olubanjo said, “He went to buy something from a shop with his friend and someone opened fire on them, killing him (Chinonso).
“He was born here, I learnt the mother is in the US. I have spoken to Mike Nsofor to pass the Nigerian community’s condolences and call for justice to be served in this case as anybody who hunts down a young schoolboy couldn’t have any justifiable reasons.”
He said Chinonso would be buried in South Africa, saying the union’s leaders in Johannesburg would also contact him “on developments”.
He added that the union would be going to the police on Monday to finalise “on the registry and provision of his papers”.
He implored the Federal Government to urgently protect Nigerians in the diaspora.
Many Nigerians have lost their lives in South Africa.
On June 13, 2019, the Deputy Director-General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Obianuju Ndubuisi-Chukwu, was found dead in her hotel room in the Southern African nation.
Ndubuisi-Chukwu had been scheduled to return to Nigeria on June 12, 2019, after attending the African Insurance Organisation conference in Johannesburg.
However, her corpse was found in a room at Emperor Palace Hotel where she had lodged for the conference.
While Ndubuisi-Chukwu was initially believed to have died in her sleep, an autopsy report, however, showed that she died of “unnatural causes consistent with strangulation”.
