In November 2013, the death of a Nigerian in India stabbed to death by unidentified men, sparked protest. Angry Nigerians protesting the killing blocked roads and allegedly attacked police vans. The police arrested over 50 Nigerians on that same day.

Ever since then, life has not been the same for Nigerians in India. On a daily basis, the police harass Nigerians on the street, at home and wherever they are found.

Recently, a young Nigerian lady was picked up in New Delhi for questioning despite not exhibiting any suspicious behaviour. She was tested for drug and was found to be clean.

The hunt is intense, resulting to the evictions of some Nigerians, a development the Nigerian government had tried to address by writing to the Indian government expressing concern over the security of its citizens.

The Indian society has stereotyped Nigerians to be drug dealers and fraudsters.

A number of them have been held in detention.

Four young Nigerians, Dickson Dickson, Oladapo Olatunbosun, Oyekunle Oluwagbemiga and Paul Osagie, have been detained in a camp in Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu State for two hand a half years, for alleged involvement in online credit card fraud.

They say they are innocent but this has to be decided in court.

After they have been granted bail and have submitted their travel documents to government authorities, they have not been allowed to go home, instead they are spending their days in a camp that activists say should have been shut down long ago.

They have been waiting to get a trial for two and a half years, kept and tortured in a camp where terrorists are held.

The condition of the camp is nothing to write home about, with the Nigerians not allowed to go out of the detention camp.

Abiodun Oluwagbemiga says he is innocent and that he has been mentally tortured.

“We have been accused of committing online credit card fraud. I am a student of NIIT, studying Information Technology.
“We were at home, when they came. The three of us, myself, Oladapo and Dickson, were at home when the police came and said that we were wanted in the station. We followed them and they detained us. We were not charged for any crime but we spent five months in prison.

“We were moved to the confinement camp after we were granted bail.

“The government should come to our aid because we are really suffering here. We are mentally tortured,” he said.

About 50,000 Nigerians are living in India, a significant number showing the bilateral relations existing between both countries.

Despite the rift caused by the killing of the Nigerian and subsequent arrests and harassment of Nigerians in India, bilateral trade relations between both countries is valued at about 10 billion dollars.

Indian oil companies are involved in oil drilling operations in Nigeria and it is one of Nigeria’s biggest buyers of oil.

It is quite understandable that India, just like Nigeria, will not tolerate crime and criminality, especially from foreigners but there is need for justice to be upheld in handling issues concerning human lives.

The Nigerian government had written to the Indian government, expressing concerns over the security of its citizens and requesting that the trial of the detained Nigerians be treated with urgency.

However, the Indian government seem not to have done anything to address the issues of injustice Nigerian citizens are facing in India.

An official of the Nigerian High Commission in India, Mr Jacob Nwadibia, had called for an end to the unlawfully eviction of Nigerians from their homes, threatening that Nigeria would deport just as many Indians from Nigeria if the eviction was not stopped.