Nigerians living on photocopies of passports: Parrikar

The Goa government will write to the Nigerian embassy after a number of Nigerians living in Goa were found to be using only photocopies of passports and visas as proof of their nationality, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said Monday.

Parrikar was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a government function at the secretariat.

"We have questioned a lot of Nigerians and were verifying their documents. Most of them have only photocopies of their passports and visas. We are going to ask the Nigerian embassy to verify these documents," Parrikar said.

This is part of a verification drive started by the Goa government which will inspect documents of all foreign nationals living in the state.

The drive was announced after Nigerian nationals blocked a National Highway Thursday for hours protesting the murder of a Nigerian by a local drug gang.

Both MPs from the state as well as many people have been calling for a boycott of Nigerians living in Goa even as many liberals have called these statements 'racist' in nature.

Parrikar said that the police were close to cracking the case of murder of Nigerian Obina Obiwesi.

He said the narcotics gang war which spilled out into the open last week will not mar the image of Goa as a tourism destination.