The Nigerian military is behind a no-fly list containing names of some persons, who took active parts in the recent #EndSARS protest across the country, a source at the Nigerian Immigration Service has told SaharaReporters.
A no-fly list is a register of people banned from boarding commercial aircrafts for travel within, into, or out of a country.
According to the story, a number of persons, who took part in the protest had already been prevented from travelling out of Nigeria in recent days by the NIS after being informed that they were on the no-fly list and were being investigated by the authorities.
A lawyer, Modupe Odele, who provided legal aide to some of the arrested protesters was prevented by the Nigerian Immigration Service from making a trip to the Maldives.
While it was initially thought that the NIS acted alone in that incident, SaharaReporters is reporting that, the names of Odele and other active participants in the protest were included on the list following their efforts in rallying demonstrators at the Lekki Toll Gate area of Lagos where Nigerian Army personnel attacked and killed several protesters on the evening of October 20, 2020.
“Odele was prevented from travelling as a result of a memo from the Nigerian military claiming that they were investigating her.
“The military sent us a no-fly list of EndSARS leaders especially agitators involved at the Lekki protest,” the NIS source told SaharaReporters.
Earlier on Monday, Odele had shared with her friends how she was stopped by NIS from travelling out of the country at the Lagos airport.
She said, “I went to the airport, passed through immigration, and while I was putting my bags through the body and baggage scanner, the immigration officer who had previously cleared me, called me back. He told me he had orders from above to detain me.
“Okay, at this point I’m like ‘excuse me, my flight is in an hour. On what grounds are you detaining me?’ He didn’t respond. Instead, he goes to his computer where he typed in my name and something that looked like a ‘wanted poster’ popped up on the portal.
“He blocked my view so I couldn’t see most of it but I saw some of it. And it read something like – ‘This person is under investigation by XYZ intelligence agency. If seen, they should be apprehended on sight.”
Odele, during the nationwide protest, offered her services as a lawyer free of charge to help release scores of participants arrested and detained by the police for exercising their rights.
“I’m not a full-time activist or human rights attorney. I am a corporate lawyer at the moment so dealing with police stations isn’t my area of expertise. I did what needed to be done in the face of gross injustice and had the support of over 800 wonderful volunteer lawyers,” she said.
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