A new report coming from Italy is alleging that Alika Ogorchukwu a Nigerian immigrant and a vendor in Italy, was beaten to death by a 32-year-old Italian on Friday in the seaside town of Civitanova, under the eyes of passers-by, AFP reports.
According to the report, no passers-by came to the aid of the Nigerian, whose death has been condemned both in Nigeria and Italy.
It is a beating that arouses indignation in Italy. On Friday, Alika Ogorchukwu, a 39-year-old Nigerian street vendor, was beaten to death in broad daylight on a shopping street in the seaside town of Civitanova, in the Marche region, reports RFI .
His attacker, a 32-year-old Italian, was filmed by passers-by for four long minutes, without anyone intervening to help the seller. On the images, we see the first seize the crutch of Alika Ogorchukwu and use it to hit him, before pressing him to the ground.
There, it is a rain of blows that falls on the Nigerian. According to our colleagues, the attacker was arrested and then imprisoned for ” voluntary homicide “. He would have justified himself to the investigators by saying that he did not support the insistence with which the seller asked for money, the report stated.
Still according to RFI, the defendant’s lawyer reports that his client suffers from “psychic disorders”. “Nothing can justify such a murder”, reacted for its part the local African community.
“General indifference”
While the lack of reaction from passers-by arouses anger in Italy, political figures have in turn taken the floor to denounce these acts of great violence.
“The murder of Alika Ogorchukwu leaves us perplexed. The unprecedented ferocity. The widespread indifference. There can be no justification. Silence is not enough either. The ultimate outrage against Alika would be to move on and ‘forget,’ wrote Enrico Letta, secretary of the Democratic Party and former head of the Italian government.
Even Matteo Salvini, leader of the Far Right of the Italian political spectrum, the Northern League, tweeted to denounce “violence day and night”.