Sponsors of protest in diaspora on the watch list: NIS boss

Sponsors of the so-called #EndBadGovernance protest based in the diaspora are on a watch list, Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Kemi Nandap said.

She said they would be arrested when entering the country.

Nandap made this known on Tuesday in Abuja during a combined news conference by the heads of security agencies and Service Chiefs convened by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, at the Defence Headquarters.

She said, “We have identified some diaspora sponsors; they are on our watch list.

“We will be notified of any attempt they make to enter the country, and they will be picked up and handed to the appropriate authority.”

The immigration boss said the service had, in response to the protest, deployed more officers to borders, both land and airports, to ensure effective manning of those entry ports.

She said that NIS had also stepped up surveillance to prevent foreign intervention in the country.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, also said that the police had uncovered some sponsors but declined to give further information.

Egbetokun said that some accounts of such individuals had been blocked, adding that “many of them reside abroad”.

Also, the Director General of the Department of State Services, Mr Yusuf Bichi, represented by the service’s spokesman, Mr Peter Afunanya, said the service was monitoring those concerned.

He added that the service also worked with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to identify more people behind the protest’s funding.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defence chief led the service chiefs and heads of all the security, intelligence and paramilitary agencies to brief newsmen on the nationwide protest.

The briefing came a day after President Bola Tinubu met with the security chiefs on the security situation following the violence that broke out during the protests across the country.