The Federal Government of Nigeria on Wednesday denied ordering the arrest of some Nigerians at the country’s embassy in Switzerland.
A video had surfaced on social media alleging that the Nigerian mission in Switzerland invited the police to arrest Nigerians who were at the Nigerian Embassy in Switzerland to procure passports.
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Chairman/CEO Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in a statement on Wednesday by her spokesman, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said the mission only appealed to them to respect the COVID-19 rules and also follow due process.
“In line with COVID-19 protocols, the Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, is only allowed to attend to 10 applicants.
“However, the Mission worked out a program that made it possible to attend to a maximum of 20 daily, spacing out the appointments.
“But on this day, 64 Nigerians besieged the Nigerian mission in Bern, it turned out that only 10 of them were on scheduled appointment.
“So, 54 of them had no appointment for that day.
“That apart, they had not made the mandatory online payment and the majority of the applicants came from Italy and Spain.
“Without any appointment whatsoever, and without any payments made online.”
