Nigerian beaten to death in Italy amid worsening racism claims

FOOTAGE of a Nigerian man being beaten to death in front of onlookers in a small Italian town has prompted protests and claims of worsening racism in the country.

Alika Ogorchukwu, a 39-year-old street vendor, was beaten with his own crutch on a busy street in the coastal town of Civitanova Marche on Friday afternoon after reportedly directing a comment to the female companion of the man who killed him.

The attacker reportedly used his knee to crush Mr Ogorchukwu’s head to the ground, prompting comparisons by one Italian newspaper to the killing of George Floyd by police in the US state of Minneapolis in 2020.

There was widespread anger and dismay on social media after several onlookers filmed the killing but failed to intervene. In the video, which has been widely shared on social media, a voice is heard shouting “You will kill him like that”.

Police have arrested a 32-year-old Italian man on suspicion of murder.

Mr Ogorchukwu’s wife, Charity Oriachi, said yesterday she was struggling to come to terms with her husband’s brutal murder and shocked at the failure of witnesses to intervene.

Ms Oriachi joined dozens of protesters in Civitanova on Saturday, where another protest is planned next weekend. Mr Ogorchukwu, the father of an eight-year-old son, was well known in the town.

Italian politicians across the spectrum have spoken out against the Marche murder but Right-wing political leaders Giorgia Meloni, head of the Brothers of Italy, and Matteo Salvini, head of the League, were criticised for taking too long to react to the murder.

Mr Salvini used the incident to complain about crime levels and later published figures highlighting a jump in undocumented migrant arrivals. Ms Meloni said there was “no justification for such brutality”.

Mr Ogorchukwu’s killing has focused fresh attention on the Marche region where Luca Traini, a far-right extremist, shot and wounded six African migrants in Macerata in February 2018, just weeks before national elections.

Daniel Amanze, the president of the non-profit Migrant Services Association in the Marche, accused the country’s Right-wing politicians of promoting a xenophobic climate of racism and hatred that had worsened since the Macerata attack.