Nigerian citizens in India are being stigmatized for allegedly bringing Coronavirus into the country, the Nasarawa State Secretary of the All Progressives Party, APC, Aliyu Bello, disclosed.
Speaking with DAILY NIGERIAN on phone recently, the APC scribe who is currently in India on a medical trip, appealed to the Federal Government to “as a matter of urgency” evacuate Nigerians from the country for fear of molestation.
According to the APC scribe, the situation in India might be hazardous if something urgent was not done to get Nigerians out of the country.
Mr Bello added that he and other Nigerians had to lock up themselves in their various hotels to guard against stigmatization and contacting the virus.
“They see you as the one who imported coronavirus to their country, once they sighted you, they begin to have a different look at you. We felt a kind of stigmatized,” he stressed.
Mr Bello said that he had been discharged from the hospital and now lodging in a Hotel for over a month, adding that himself and other Nigerians, especially from Sokoto State, have been held up in hotels.
He lamented that it is now becoming very difficult to pay their bills, saying that they had spent all they have and might be thrown out of the hotels soon.
“I left Nigeria on the 7th of March and was supposed to come back on 6th of April but was held up because of the outbreak of coronavirus.
“I had successful surgery in my two legs, the right leg is ninety percent healed while the left leg is fifty percent heeled,” Mr Bello disclosed.
He, however, said that although the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Embassy in India had assured them of evacuation, nothing was being said about the move again.
“The embassy has contacted us on the 7th of April demanding for our data pages and return ticket and that they have sent it to Nigeria awaiting further directives.
“I am appealing to the federal government to evacuate us because the situation is bad in India and to assist us so that we pay at least fifty percent of the cost of the ticket since they want us to pay for the
ticket,” the APC scribe explained.
