Security
Despite a mountain of evidence, Nigerian Govt denies listing #EndSARS protesters on a “no-fly list”
Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior denies generating “a no-fly list” targeted at EndSARS protester.
Endsars is a protest against police brutality and this forced thousands of Nigerians to march across cities demanding an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, a police unit accused of extrajudicial killings and abuses.
But according to the ministry of interior on Tuesday in response to a story after a protester of the #EndSARS movement, Modupe Odele, was prevented from travelling abroad, no such thing is ongoing.
The ministry wrote, “The Ministry of Interior did not, has not and will not generate any no-fly list. Ignore fake news please!”.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is the ministry tasked with providing complementary internal security and other ancillary services within Nigeria and the Nigerian immigration is an agency under the ministry led by Rauf Aregbesola, a minister from Osun State .
Sources tell NewsWireNGR that the Government is currently cracking down on frontline members of the Endsars protest, and a list has been allegedly compiled by the Department of State Security preventing promoters from flying.
This is not the first time the Nigerian Government will openly deny actions carried out against citizens despite evidence – NewsWireNGR recalls that when the shootings of unarmed protesters happened in Lekki, the government denied soldiers were at the toll gate plaza but later admitted after international pressure.
Ms Odele who was prevented from flying, offered free legal aid to persons who were unjustly arrested during the demonstrations.
In a newsletter Monday, she explained that she was on her way to the Maldives to celebrate her birthday when she was accosted by immigration officers.
She wrote, “For my birthday, I had planned a trip to the Maldives. It was really for a break as the events of the last three weeks have exhausted my mind and body in a way I have never been exhausted in my life.
“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.’”
“Since the #EndSARS peaceful protests started in Nigeria about three weeks ago, I and some super courageous women have been providing support to Nigerians as they came out to peacefully exercise their constitutional rights” she wrote.
She continued, “I was specifically in charge of legal aid and so co-led www.endsarslegalaid.co where we succeeded in helping over 80 peaceful protesters who were arrested get released. It was back-breaking and emotionally tasking work but the joy that the family expressed when being reunited with loved ones made it all worth it”.
“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.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Former Minister Obiageli “Oby” has written to the Nigerian Government authorities requesting an immediate “immediately retrieve of @Mochievous Modupe Odele’s passport seized by the Immigration Service.
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