* Dabiri-Erewa
by Tony Icheku, Abuja

 ''This is one death too many'', laments Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, over the incessant extra judicial killings of Nigerians resident in South Africa.

 The clearly enraged Presidential Aide maintained that the latest gruesome killing of Kingsley Ikeri  and two others by the Police in South Africa, is "unacceptable to the people and government of Nigeria"

 In a press statement she affirmed that  the killings are ''worrying and condemnable, and regreted  that several  diplomatic talks between Nigeria and South Africa to put an early warning signal in place, "doesn't seem to be working.

 "The barbaric behaviour of the perpetrators is not only unacceptable, but also calls for urgent attention by diplomatic authorities in Nigeria and South Africa", she maintained 

 Dabiri-Erewa urged the South African government to ensure that justice prevails by  carrying out investigation and bring the culprit to book.

 "My heart goes out to the families of the deceased and pray God to grant the departed soul eternal rest", the SSA prayed, and  reiterated her calls to Nigerians living abroad to always respect the laws of their host countries and be good ambassadors of Nigeria.

 The Nigeria Union in South Africa confirmed the killing of another member, Kingsley Ikeri, at Vryheid town in Kwazulu Natal Province of South Africa on August  30.

 Ikeri, 27, was a businessman and native of Mbaitolu in Imo State and the second Imo indigene to be so killed in the last two weeks.

Bartholomew Eziagulu, Chairman of the Nigerian Union in the province, told the newsmen on Friday that Mr. Ikeri was allegedly tortured to death by the police.

 He explained that  the union’s investigations revealed that the police arrested the deceased and a friend on suspicion that they were carrying hard drugs.

 According to him, while interrogating him, the police used plastic to cover his face to extort information from him.

 “In the process, they suffocated the deceased. When the police took him to the hospital, he was confirmed dead,” he said.

 Adetola Olubajo, the Secretary General of the union, remarked that  the national secretariat  had been informed about the death of the Nigerian.

 And added that  the body had informed appropriate Nigerian authorities and the police in South Africa.

 Theledgerng.com gathered  that a senior Diplomat from the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg had visited Vryheid on a fact-finding mission.

 It will be recalled that Dabiri-Erewa  had in February during  a meeting in Abuja with South Africa High Commissioner, Mr Lulu Louis Mnguni revealed that  a total of 116 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa through extrajudicial means in the last two years. Seven in 10 of the killings were carried out by the South African Police.