Visa ban: UK envoy says 10 people on watchlist

…knocks Fani-Kayode over comments

…I will not be intimidated by visa ban threat – Fani-Kayode

The British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, on Sunday, revealed that 10 Nigerians were on the country’s visa ban watchlist.

The UK envoy said this while speaking in an interview with Nigeria Info FM.

The UK had prior to the general election and afterwards, vowed to sanction people undermining democracy in Nigeria by imposing a visa ban on them.

Speaking further, Llewellyn faulted the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council’s Director of New Media, Femi Fani-Kayode, on some comments he made.

Some of the former minister’s tweets in reference to the opposition have contained words and phrases deemed divisive and inciting by some people.

Reacting to the development, Llewellyn-Jones said, “Yes, let’s be specific; there were some people, like Femi Fani-Kayode, what is he saying and why is he saying it? I don’t understand.

“It is wrong from my perspective that he will speak on behalf of a party and that party does not distance itself from him and say, ‘stop doing that. It is wrong to say that’.

“We have a list, we are working through our list but we don’t publish those names. I know people say we should, but we have laws, and the law prevents us from doing that.

“At the moment, the list is between five and 10 and growing,” he added.

Reacting, Fani-Kayode said he would not be intimidated by a visa ban, saying, “these are my personal views and I am constrained to express them.”

“Nigeria stopped being a British colony 63 years ago, and we need no lessons from him on how to run our affairs or conduct our politics,” Fani-Kayode wrote.

“I wonder who the hell he thinks he is. I am not one of those Nigerians that bows, shakes, shivers, and trembles before the British or indeed any other foreigner. And unlike most, I do not need any validation or endorsement from him or his ilk and neither can I be intimidated by his veiled threat of a visa ban. Frankly, I could not care less.

“Neither will we accept lessons in decency, etiquette, what to say, or how to speak from a British civil servant. I advise this Englander to respect himself and remain a silent observer when it comes to the politics of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As a nation, we are not a poodle of the British and we came of age 63 years ago,” the APC chieftain added.