Sponsors of the protests across the country are on the watch lists of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Department of State Services(DSS), and the police.

NIS vowed that the sponsors who are foreign-based Nigerians would be arrested if they ventured to enter the country, the Police and DSS revealed that the bank accounts of most of them had been blocked.

Comptroller-General Nigeria Immigration Service (CG NIS), Kemi Nandap and Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun made these known at a joint news conference of service chiefs and heads of security agencies at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja yesterday.

Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa convened the meeting a day after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu met with the security chiefs over the violence that broke out during the protests.

Gen. Musa also told reporters that the military and other security agencies were only after persons behind the call for undemocratic change of government.

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Nandap also said that NIS, supported by the military, had stepped up surveillance of the nation’s borders to prevent foreign intervention.

She said: “We have diaspora sponsors, they are on our watch list. They are watch-listed and any attempt they make to come into the country, we’ll be notified and they will be picked up and handed to the appropriate authority.

‘’What we’ve done is to deploy a lot of our officers to the borders to make sure that our borders are well protected.

“In terms of profiling people coming in and going out of the country, we have stepped that up to make sure that people are properly screened before they can come into the country. And those that are of interest, of course, will not be allowed in.

“Right now, both the airports, the land borders, and our sea borders are well manned and protected. And we do this also in collaboration with the military and other security agencies.

IGP Egbetokun, who neither provided the number nor names of the uncovered sponsors of the protests, said even though “many of them reside abroad,” their bank accounts in Nigeria had been blocked.

DSS boss Bichi, who was represented by the agency’s spokesman Dr. Peter Afunnaya, also confirmed that the sponsors would not have access to their accounts in the country.

Adding that the sponsors are also under the agency’s radar, Bichi said the help of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit had been sought to identify more of those funding the protest.

Security agencies only after Nigeria’s enemies, says CDS
CDS Musa said the military and other security agencies were trailing some protesters calling for regime change.

“We are only after those that are against the states, not those that are innocent,’’ the Defence boss said as he thanked Nigerians for their understanding.

He said: “I want to appreciate Nigerians for their understanding, for their commitment to upholding the law and order.

“We have had issues in the past few days, but you can see that people have seen reason for us not to continue with the destruction, to stop the looting, to stop giving opportunities for others to subvert our nation and to destroy our nation.

“They have also seen reasons to join hands together with the security forces to make Nigeria better.

“We want to assure them we on this side that we are fully committed to Nigeria, we love the country, we are mindful of the fact that we have been equipped and so we are duty bound to protect the country.

“I want to make that very clear and we will continue to work together as a team to support Mr President in achieving his mandate of peace and tranquility in our dear country Nigeria.”

The defence chief called for calm, mediation, discussion, and dialogue toward national unity and cohesion as one great country.

He restated that the military was not interested in anybody being killed, injured, and prosecuted except those who crossed the line.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja said the operational commitment of the Army was to deploy resources to combat the violence trailing protests.

Lagbaja said the attention of the Army had not been diverted from its main operational commitment of combating terrorism and banditry.

He said: “I checked the number of patrols that troops conduct, the number of ambushes that are undertaken on a daily basis, the number of violent insurgents that have been eliminated, incapacitated, and other indices, and it has not dropped by whatever measure.

“Also we have continued to expand the frontier of peace and security in Borno state. The IDPs(Internally Displaced Persons) are being returned to Kukawa and some other places as I speak to you, which are indices of return to peace and stability.

“So the troops are not relenting in their operational commitment in the field on our contingency plan if the situation degenerates.

“I want to also assure you that our estimates looking into the future suggest that the situation will not degenerate but we need the cooperation of every stakeholder to achieve that.”

Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla said that the Navy had continued to work with other security agencies to ensure safety and security in the maritime domain.

Ogalla reiterated the commitment of the Navy to sustain its operations in the Niger Delta to ensure that the nation meets its oil production capacity

He said the operations had led to an increase in oil output and boosted the revenue generation from oil that would help the nation to meet the needs of the citizens.

Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar said the Nigerian Air Force remained committed to ensuring successful operations in all operational engagements of the armed forces.

He said the military was mindful of its commitment to defending the territorial integrity of the nation.