Concerned by the destruction that trailed the hunger protests across Nigeria, the Federal Government has placed sponsors of the demonstration, particularly those based abroad, on watch-list.
It stated that the sponsors would be apprehended upon their entry into the country for alleged crime against the state.
The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, disclosed this on Tuesday during a press briefing by heads of security agencies and Service Chiefs convened by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.
Nandap 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”.
She stated that 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.
The immigration boss said that NIS had also stepped up surveillance to prevent foreign intervention in the country.
The Inspector-General of Police, 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, Yusuf Bichi, represented by the service’s spokesman, 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 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.
