A spokesman for Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry told
Press in Abuja yesterday that the United Kingdom has rescinded its plan to
place a £3,000 bond on Nigerians seeking entry to the country, The Sunday Times of London had quoted UK Home
Secretary Theresa May (23/6/2013) as saying that a pilot scheme that would
target visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana
would take off in November under which travellers from those countries would
pay a cash deposit of £3,000 to deter immigration abuse.
The spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry of
Nigeria in Abuja, Mr. Ode Ogbole, when
contacted, replied via text message that: “It’s been rescinded”. He did not
give further details and did not answer subsequent telephone calls. Another
official of the ministry of foreign affair in Nigeria who chose to remain
anonymous also told said that a message from the UK government rescinding the
plan had been sent to the Presidency.
Earlier yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga
Ashiru told journalists at the ministerial platform commemorating the mid-term
anniversary of the Jonathan administration that no official communication had
been received from the British government by Nigeria on the subject assuring
Nigerians that the government is always
ready to defend and protect them all over the world. The House of
Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee has described the proposed UK entry
bond as discriminatory and unacceptable. “This is totally discriminatory and
unacceptable. It is targeted to non-white Commonwealth. We would take a
critical look at the policy as it affects Nigerians and come up with a way
forward,” committee chairman Rep. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje (PDP Abia) said in a
statement.
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