Immigration Comptroller General Nandap puts diaspora protest sponsors on watchlist
The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, has announced that individuals who sponsored the recent #EndBadGovernance protests from abroad are now on a watch list. Nandap made this known during a press conference in Abuja, convened by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.
According to Nandap, the NIS has identified some of these sponsors and will arrest them if they attempt to enter the country. “We have identified some diaspora sponsors, they are on our watch list. Any attempt they make to come into the country, we will be notified and they will be picked up and handed to the appropriate authority,” she said.
In response to the protests, the NIS has deployed additional officers to borders and airports to ensure effective manning of entry points. The service has also stepped up surveillance to prevent foreign intervention in the country.
The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, also revealed that the police have uncovered some sponsors of the protests, but declined to provide further information. He noted that some accounts of these individuals had been blocked, adding that many of them reside abroad.
The Director General of the Department of State Services, Mr. Yusuf Bichi, represented by the service’s spokesman, Peter Afunanya, said that the service is monitoring those concerned and working with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to identify more persons behind the funding of the protest.
The press conference was led by the defense chief and included service chiefs and heads of all security, intelligence, and paramilitary agencies. It came a day after President Bola Tinubu met with security chiefs to discuss the security situation following the violence that broke out during the protests across the country.
