However, reports coming in from Mumbai have indicated that many of whom fled Goa have ended up there in popular hangouts for African origin people, clearly fearing what they term is a “witchhunt”. Speaking to a Mumbai-based news portal, some Nigerians sought to give reasons explaining why their compatriots took the law into their own hands.
“We protested on the roads because the police refused to take details of the killers, which we were trying to give them. There was a communication gap initially and the lower category police officers did not listen to us. All we asked them was that we wanted to check the body of our murdered brother as we feared the killers could have planted drugs on his corpse to make him look like a drug peddler. We wanted a proper panchanama to be done before the body could be sent for post mortem,” a Nigerian, who refused to be identified told the news portal.
“We wanted two of our people to accompany the body and be present during the post mortem to ensure that there was no hanky panky. But the police refused prompting some hot-blooded Nigerians to take the law in their own hands,” he added.
On Saturday, not many Nigerians were seen in Parra, Nagoa-Arpora and Calangute. Many have speculated that they may have fled fearing a possible backlash from locals, seething in anger after Thursday’s incident. Incidentally, virtually none of the very few Nigerians seen in Parra were willing to comment saying it would make little difference, as locals were already biased in their assessment of the Nigerian community.
One Nigerian did, however, express unhappiness and regret over the “unwarranted protests” at Parra and Porvorim.
“They should have stopped their protest at Parra and there was no need to create a ruckus at Porvorim”.
“Whatever happened at Parra, and Porvorim in particular, was very bad. The incident of pulling out the dead body and throwing it on the road was sheer madness and was an uncultured act on part of our angry fellow Nigerians. Their actions on Thursday are creating problems for us and have unnecessarily tarnished our image,” the Nigerian added.
“Not all Nigerians are bad, as is being projected by a few locals. Some of us are here in Goa for legitimate purposes and we have enjoyed the hospitality of the Goans. There are many wonderful people who refuse to brand the entire Nigerian community as troublemakers or drug peddlers. There have been allegations that some Goa Police officials are involved in drug trade. Should we then assume that the entire Goa police force is dabbling in drugs,” asked the Nigerian.
HERALD-GOA
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