Mr Afif said his Seychelles immigration authorities had been instructed to permit Nigerians with diplomatic passports and residential permits access into the country. Nigerians seeking to enter Seychelles as tourists or new immigrants have been banned indefinitely, the vice president said, according to Seychelles News Agency.
Mr Afih said his country was able to link Nigerians to numerous criminal activities, especially drug-trafficking and online fraud syndicates.
“We have seen a clear link between this with certain people from Nigeria. In the past two weeks, for example, 13 people coming from Nigeria have been arrested when entering Seychelles because they were carrying drugs into the country,” Mr Afif said per Seychelles News Agency.
Mr Afif’s comments came days after controversy broke out on social media after some Nigerians alleged being denied visas for no tenable reasons by Seychelles. Nigeria has faced visa bans from other countries in recent months, including the United Arab Emirates, which added the West African nation to a list of 17 African countries not welcome.
Nigeria’s drug-trafficking perception spanned several decades, but it was recently amplified around the world after the country elected Bola Tinubu as president. Mr Tinubu, 71, was accused of doing drugs and money laundering in the United States in the 1990s.
He was ordered to forfeit about $460,000 by a federal judge in Chicago, after the funds were traced directly to drug dealing. He has not denied the allegations, but relentlessly avoided answering related questions until he was successfully elected president of Nigeria in February 2023.
It was unclear whether Seychelles authorities considered Mr Tinubu’s background in drug business before imposing the broad restrictions on Nigerians this week.
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