The Ministry of Interior is compiling a list of leading #EndSARS protesters and strategists with the aim of imposing travel restrictions.
This is according to a Tuesday report by Peoples Gazette, quoting two unnamed Department of State Services (DSS) officials and an Interior Ministry official knowledgeable about the matter.
According to the report, the compilation of the “no-fly” list began two weeks ago.
Between October 8 and 23, Nigerian youths trooped out to demand an end to police brutality.
However, hoodlums hijacked the protests and wreaked havoc on public institutions and private property.
The Interior Ministry, which controls the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), was said to have begun compiling the list after it requested from the DSS whether or not it had a profile of key supporters of the protests.
“We told the ministry that we have not started compiling a list of the protesters because we did not get a presidential directive to do so as of that time.
“But the ministry went on on its own to start collating a list for enforcement,” one of the DSS officials was quoted to have said.
The other DSS official attached to civil aviation stated that while the Interior Ministry’s list has not been officially circulated, six persons on the list linked to the #EndSARS protests were last week prevented from travelling outside Nigeria.
The protesters on the list, the report said, have not been accused of any crime but “hundreds” of them have been targeted for overseas journeys.
One of the persons named on the preliminary list was identified as a man whose passport was issued in Atlanta, United States, in February 2016.
Recall that a key #EndSARS strategist, Modupe Chizoba Odele who tweets from @Mochievous, was stopped at the airport on Sunday from travelling out of the country.
Odele, an attorney, contributed her legal expertise to the protests.
She said that officials confiscated her passport at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos as she was heading out to the Maldives for her birthday.
But taking to Twitter on Tuesday, she wrote, “Hello everyone. Thank you so much. I’m fine and I’m safe. We haven’t confirmed yet why I was stopped on Sunday or by whom.
“But I’ve been invited back in with my lawyers today. I’ll update when I have more information but please don’t spread false news. That is dangerous.”