The United States of America (USA) has further clarified the visa restrictions imposed on certain Nigerian politicians for undermining the democratic process in the 2023 elections.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, provided the clarification during a press briefing, where he disclosed “visa records are confidential” and therefore, will not “get into a specific litany of lists”.
Fielding questions during the press briefing after US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken on Monday first disclosed visa restrictions are being imposed on a number of Nigerians, Patel noted that the restrictions are specific to certain individuals.
“As you know…, visa records are confidential, so I’m just certainly not going to get into a specific litany of lists, but what I will note is that today’s steps are specific to certain individuals and they are not directed at the Nigerian people nor the Government of Nigeria as a whole,” he said.
Patel recalled that in February Blinken spoke to this via a statement in which he congratulated Nigerians people and the winners in the 2023 general election.
“So you might recall that in February the Secretary spoke to this via a statement in which – congratulating the Nigerian people and the winners of that election and calling that election credible, and our viewpoint is that both things can be true.
“The election can be credible and we congratulated it when it happened, but also, individuals could have attempted to undermine it. And that’s what today’s designation is about, is the Secretary announcing steps to impose visa restrictions on individuals who we believe were responsible for or complicit in undermining the democratic processes during Nigeria’s 2023 elections,” he emphasized.
US Secretary of State Blinken in a statement disclosed there were visa restrictions being imposed on a number of Nigerians over undermining the democratic process in the elections this year.
A number of opposition candidates have challenged the actual validity of the election results and the litigations are presently ongoing at election petitions tribunals set up across the country.