Visa ban: UK places 10 Nigerians on watchlist, envoy chides Fani-Kayode

On visa ban, the high commission said sanctions would include “preventing people from obtaining UK visas or imposing sanctions under our human rights sanctions regime.”

By Jeffrey Agbo

Deputy High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, has said the UK Mission is working on the list of Nigerians it will slam with visa ban.

The envoy said on Sunday on a current affairs programme on Nigerian Info FM that the mission had between five and 10 names on its list already, adding that more would still be added.

Llewellyn-Jones said the names of defaulters would not be published as expected in some quarters.

The British High Commission had last week said the UK Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell MP, was prepared to take action against those who engaged in or incited electoral violence during the just-concluded general elections.

The high commission said the UK was already collating names of perpetrators and would impose sanctions “including preventing people from obtaining UK visas or imposing sanctions under our human rights sanctions regime.”

Speaking on Sunday, Llewellyn-Jones said, “We’re working through a list and we don’t publish those names. I know people say we should but you know we have laws that protect. But we do have a list. We said that we would do this and we will do this. And, you know, we’re gathering the kind of information that would enable us to do this around specific individuals.

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“You know, we watched very closely. I was in Lagos the whole time. We had people on the ground in key places. We won’t publish the names. We don’t do that. We can’t do that. We have between five and 10 names on its list already, it is a growing list. “

Responding to a question on if there were triggers for violence leading up from the campaign to the election, Llewellyn-Jones decried the controversial statement attributed to a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Fani-Kayode.

He also lamented that the ruling APC had yet to distance itself from some comments made by Mr Fani-Kayode.

He said, “There were some people in the news, like Fani-Kayode. What is he saying? Why is he saying it? I don’t understand. I mean, I do understand but it’s wrong. And it’s wrong from my perspective that he would speak on behalf of a party and that party doesn’t just distance themselves but says stop doing that.”

Llewellyn-Jones also condemned the divisive politics that played out during the election in Lagos, adding,”And if Lagos can’t be that kind of cosmopolitan melting pot of culture and language and all the things that should be, really how’s Lagos going to succeed?”