The Federal Government says it will seek compensation from South Africa for Nigerians who were forced to abandon businesses and other valuable assets while fleeing renewed xenophobic attacks in the country.
This is coming as another 269 Nigerians landed in Lagos on Tuesday in the third government evacuation flight, pushing the total number repatriated to 603. The figure includes 268 evacuees flown in by Air Peace on June 11, 66 brought back by ValueJet on July 25, and the latest 269 arrivals.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief as the returnees touched down, Acting Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Temitope Ajayi, said the government has begun compiling records of properties and businesses left behind by Nigerians returning home. He said this documentation would form the basis of compensation talks with South African authorities.
Ajayi disclosed that he had already raised the matter with South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Finance, and that returnees were being instructed to accurately record everything they were leaving behind — including cars, shops, and other movable and immovable property — before boarding evacuation flights. He said the government intends to match this documentation with exact locations before formally presenting a compensation case to Pretoria.
He also pushed back on claims that most affected Nigerians were undocumented migrants, insisting the majority had entered South Africa through legal channels. According to him, a backlog of unprocessed applications at South Africa’s Home Affairs office over the past three to four years has left many foreign nationals — Nigerians included — unable to renew their papers through no fault of their own.
Evacuation to continue past June 30
The latest batch of returnees was received by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by Director of African Affairs, Ambassador Haruna Ali Gombe, who relayed President Bola Tinubu’s greetings and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protecting Nigerians abroad.
Ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said the evacuation exercise — approved by President Tinubu via five Air Peace flights — would continue beyond the June 30 deadline set for undocumented foreigners to leave South Africa, and urged Nigerians still in the country to remain calm and avoid protest hotspots.
Protests largely peaceful amid heavy security
Nigerians in South Africa reported that the June 30 protests remained largely peaceful, credited to a massive security deployment. Authorities in Pretoria mobilised roughly 13,000 police officers, drones, helicopters and over 33,000 CCTV cameras across Gauteng Province — one of the country’s largest domestic security operations in years — at an estimated cost of R600 million (about $35.5 million), according to Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia.
A Nigerian resident in Johannesburg, identified only as Madueke, said businesses shut down and residents stayed indoors, but that military presence following the protesters prevented looting and destruction. He appealed for more evacuation flights, saying thousands more Nigerians were ready to leave.
“They can’t force us out” — Igbo Union
Ezeanozie Eleberi, National Secretary of the Igbo Union South Africa, said the protests were “cool and calm” and insisted that Nigerians with legal status, businesses and families in South Africa would not be intimidated into leaving. He estimated that only around 1,500 Nigerians were voluntarily seeking repatriation, while many more remained rooted in the country.
Eleberi also blamed South Africa’s Home Affairs system for creating undocumented status among otherwise legal migrants, though he acknowledged some Nigerians had overstayed visas or entered irregularly.
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