New Telegraph-Admin The Director-General, Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, yesterday, revealed that some sponsors of the demonstrations have been taken in even as funding lines have been identified.
This was as the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Kemi Nandap, disclosed that diaspora sponsors of protests in parts of Nigeria, which had assumed a violent outlook, have since been placed on watch list, and will be arrested once they entered the country.
New Telegraph reports that in states like Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa, wanton destruction of property as well as looting have characterised the protests, with needless loss of lives.
The development had necessitated a high-powered security meeting called by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen Christopher Musa, and attended by Chief of Army Staff (COAS), LtGen Taoreed Lagbaja, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun), Director-General of DSS, who was represented by the Service’s spokesperson, Dr Peter Afunanya, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, and heads of paramilitary agencies.
In his intervention, Afunanya noted: “For the DSS, we have continued to gather appropriate intelligence and escalate same as appropriate. “Disseminate timely, actionable intelligence to action agencies and appropriate stakeholders on the basis of need-to-know and necessity for national security.”
On the protests, he said: “We identified funding lines; we identified the sponsors, and the critical role players in the protests. “For us again, we have continued to up our strategy to ensure whether at this level or any other level to ensure that any person, who is involved in outright display of anarchy and chaos in the nation, must be brought to book.
“We have arrested sponsors of those who used Russian flags. It is not just that children were flying flags, no, there is more to that. The real persons behind this: some of them are already in our net but we will not disclose aspects of our operations.”
In her submission at the briefing, the CGI said: “We have diaspora sponsors; they are on our watch list. They are watch-listed; any attempt they make to come into the country, we’ll be notified and they will be picked up and handed to appropriate authority.
