A Nigerian national, Nicholas John, has ben killed following a vicious attack by gangsters in South Africa.
The President Nigeria Union South Africa (NUSA), Collins Mgbo, who disclosed this in a statement issued from South Africa on Thursday said John, an indigene of Ogun state, was attacked by a mob at his shop in Kimberly in South Africa’s Northern Cape on Feb.12.
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), records show that at least 128 Nigerians have been killed in the former Rainbow Nation since 2019.
On Dec. 12 last year, one Olusola Solarin, lost his life, following an attack by hoodlums, who attacked him and collected his money.
Mgbo said that John’s South African wife put to bed barely three months ago.
On the circumstances that led to John’s death on Feb. 15, Mgbo said that on Feb. 11, the Nigerian was attacked by a South African gang for allegedly buying a stolen laptop.
“He was beaten alongside his friends, who they believed he was an accomplice, while the South African criminal, who stole the laptop and sold to John was left unharmed.
The NUSA president said that John had battled for survival at the intensive care unit in Kimberley Hospital, where he later died.
Mgbo explained further that John had bought a stolen laptop from a South African and that the owner of the stolen laptop apprehended the South African, who stole the laptop and that he took them to the Nigerian, who had bought the stolen laptop.
“The Nigerian, who bought the laptop had apparently sold it to another Nigerian.
“They asked him to call the Nigerian he sold it to and he did, but when he arrived, he told them that he didn’t have the laptop anymore but agreed to pay them for it.
“The owner of the laptop agreed but the owner came with a group which wanted to rob John of his phones but he resisted and that was when they beat him to comatose state and left him to die.’’
According to Mgbo, other Nigerians at the scene called an ambulance and took John to hospital but they were informed by the medical doctor at the hospital that his brain was damaged and that he might not make it.