KANYI Dyantyi will not have the wedding she was looking forward to after her Nigerian-born fiancé died while in police custody in Cape Town earlier this month.
Thirty-two-year-old Obinna Ugboaja's death has angered the Nigerian community in Cape Town, which marched to Parliament last week.
The march organisers, the Nigerian Union in the Western Cape and Frontline Africa, claim that Nigerian nationals continue to fall prey to incidents of brutality and that in most cases these are swept under the carpet on the false assumption that all Nigerians are criminals.
According to the Independent Complaints Directorate 2011-12 annual report 932 people died while in police custody or as a result of police action.
The Nigerian Union has since opened a court case to investigate Ugboaja's death.
Grief-stricken Dyantyi, who met Ugboaja five years ago, remains in the dark about his death.
"I really don't know what happened. They took me to the mortuary and there I found him dead and his mouth and neck was full of blood and he had marks on his neck like he had been held hard.
"They said he was dead because he had overdosed on cocaine. He did not even smoke cigarettes."
She said Ugboaja, who was a computer technician at First Coast Technologies and had been in South Africa for seven years, left their Brooklyn home on Saturday night, January 5, to meet friends in town.
She got worried when he did not come home and his cellphone went unanswered.
After notifying his brother, Dyantyi took their one-year-old daughter Chinaka Ugboaja and went to the police station where his car was parked outside. But she was sent away with no answers provided.
"I waited for almost two and a half hours. My baby was screaming. I didn't even know my future husband was dead. They didn't tell me."
When she returned the following morning she was taken to the mortuary.
"Next year Easter we were supposed to go to Nigeria to marry. His family is waiting. I don't even work and I don't know how we are going to pay to bury him," she said.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said the matter was being looked into.
"When someone dies in custody we will investigate it," Dlamini said.
Nigerians up in arms
KANYI Dyantyi will not have the wedding she was looking forward to after her Nigerian-born fiancé died while in police custody in Cape Town earlier this month.
Thirty-two-year-old Obinna Ugboaja's death has angered the Nigerian community in Cape Town, which marched to Parliament last week.
The march organisers, the Nigerian Union in the Western Cape and Frontline Africa, claim that Nigerian nationals continue to fall prey to incidents of brutality and that in most cases these are swept under the carpet on the false assumption that all Nigerians are criminals.
According to the Independent Complaints Directorate 2011-12 annual report 932 people died while in police custody or as a result of police action.
The Nigerian Union has since opened a court case to investigate Ugboaja's death.
Grief-stricken Dyantyi, who met Ugboaja five years ago, remains in the dark about his death.
"I really don't know what happened. They took me to the mortuary and there I found him dead and his mouth and neck was full of blood and he had marks on his neck like he had been held hard.
"They said he was dead because he had overdosed on cocaine. He did not even smoke cigarettes."
She said Ugboaja, who was a computer technician at First Coast Technologies and had been in South Africa for seven years, left their Brooklyn home on Saturday night, January 5, to meet friends in town.
She got worried when he did not come home and his cellphone went unanswered.
After notifying his brother, Dyantyi took their one-year-old daughter Chinaka Ugboaja and went to the police station where his car was parked outside. But she was sent away with no answers provided.
"I waited for almost two and a half hours. My baby was screaming. I didn't even know my future husband was dead. They didn't tell me."
When she returned the following morning she was taken to the mortuary.
"Next year Easter we were supposed to go to Nigeria to marry. His family is waiting. I don't even work and I don't know how we are going to pay to bury him," she said.
Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said the matter was being looked into.
"When someone dies in custody we will investigate it," Dlamini said.
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