The Ministry of Interior has denied allegation it is compiling a list of leading voices of the #EndSARS campaign to place them on travel ban.
The ministry denied the allegation following a report by Peoples Gazette that the interior ministry under Rauf Aregbesola requested from the Department of State Services if it had a profile of key supporters of the protests.
The online news platform quoted a DSS official attached to civil aviation who said the list was yet to be formally circulated but that six people suspected of participating in the protest were already prevented from traveling last week.
“I know six people have been prevented from travelling to Europe and Dubai because of the troubles they put the government through with their campaign against security workers,” the official was quoted saying.
“The immigration people are already doing their own work, but we have not received any list from the headquarters.”
Among those barred from travelling, the report said, was a male whose passport was issued in Atlanta, United States in February 2016. The name was not revealed.
The interior ministry said in a tweet on Tuesday that the report was false.
“The Ministry of Interior did not, has not and will not generate any no-fly list. Ignore fake news please!” it said.
The ministry’s position was called to question after a lawyer and promoter of the #EndSARS campaign Modupe Odele said she was barred from leaving the country on Sunday for the Maldives.
Odele said her passport was seized and she was detained for some time.