News
The House of Representatives has begun an investigation into the
immigration documents of Chinese immigrants living in Nigeria.
The investigation which began on July 20 in Abuja, is being conducted by
the joint house committees on Interior, Nigeria Content Development and
Monitoring and Commerce.
The Speaker of the house, Rep. Femi Gbajabimila recalled that in April,
photos and videos which went viral on the social media allegedly depicted
institutionalised racial discrimination, maltreatment of Nigerians in China.
He said it also showed xenophobic assaults, embarrassments, illegal
detentions and forceful evictions of Nigerians and other Africans living in
Guangzhou, China.
Gbajabimila said that he summoned the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr.
Zhou Pingjian precisely on April, 10 to register Nigeria’s displeasure with the
incident.
“Subsequently, the House of Representatives on Tuesday, April 28, issued
a strong-worded House Resolutions, condemned, in its entirety, the
maltreatment, discrimination and xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in the
Peoples Republic of China.
“Apart from urging the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to provide financial
and other assistance to affected Nigerian citizens in China, the house took a
two-pronged approach by constituting two joint committees to undertake two
specific assignments towards remedying the ugly situation,” he said.
The speaker said that the house also mandated the House Committees on
Foreign Affairs, Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Human Rights, and Diaspora to
ascertain the extent of violation of rights of Nigerians in China.
He said that the committees were also to determined as well as losses
arising from such maltreatments and to further engage the Chinese Parliament
appropriately to register Nigeria’s National Assembly condemnation of the
maltreatment.
Gbajabimila said that the house also mandated committees to investigate
the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC),
Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, and any other relevant
ministry, department or agency to check the validity of all immigration
documents of every Chinese person in Nigeria.
According to him, the committee is to look into the expatriate quota of
all the Chinese immigrants in Nigeria, and to repatriate them to China to
regularise.
“I, therefore, implore all the relevant stakeholders to assist the joint
committee in discharging the mandate entrusted to it.
“The joint committee is imbued with legal and statutory powers to conduct
this hearing as stipulated in the Standing Orders of the House, Legislative
Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, 2017 and the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“The powers include right to order the attendance of witnesses, issuance
and service of summons to attend and power to issue warrants to compel
attendance.
“We are all partners in progress and I trust that the joint committee
will be fair in the conduct of its assignment,”he said.
Credit:www.maritimefirstnewspaper.com
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