NIGERIA has arrested seven Polish nationals for raising Russian flags during the nationwide #EndBadGoveranance Protests protests Kano, even as some of the tailors that sew the flags were earlier arrested and were being detained by security agencies.
Spokesman of the Department of State Service (DSS), Dr. Peter Afunanya, said the Poles were detained during its efforts to enforce security.
He did give further details regarding the identities of those arrested, but said the operations were not targeting Polish citizens.
Meanwhile, a Polish consul to Nigeria, Mr. Stanislaw Gulinski, confirmed the arrests at a meeting between Nigeria’s foreign minister and diplomats in the capital, Abuja, saying: “They were arrested two days ago in Kano and last I heard, they were on the plane to Abuja from Kano.”
Gulinski declined to further comment, but the Polish foreign ministry wrote on its X handle: “The Abuja (diplomatic post) was informed about the arrest of a group of Polish students and a lecturer in Kano, northern Nigeria.
“The consular service is establishing the exact circumstances of the incident with the local authorities in order to support our citizens.
“The ministry of foreign affairs remains in contact with the families of those detained.”
Recall that the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, while speaking to journalists after a security meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja on Monday, August 5, attended by all heads of the country’s security organisations, called the brandishing of a foreign flag a “treasonable offence.”
During the protest Borno, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina states, protesters were seen waving Russian flags, with some calling for a military takeover.
The Russian embassy in Nigeria has since denied any Russian government involvement, saying it respects Nigeria’s sovereignty.
