US Embassy in Nigeria yesterday reacted to complaints that the American Government had begun discreet revocation of visas belonging to some Nigerians without any explanation or opportunity for appeal.
A spokesperson for the embassy in Lagos in a response to enquiries, said that the action was part of President Donald Trump’s moves to secure the American people, noting that the increased vetting includes all of the more than 55 million foreigners with valid US visas and not just Nigerians.
The embassy maintained that visas were being cancelled in cases where a foreign visitor – including foreign students – overstays their lawful period of admission, engages in criminal activity or provides material support to a terrorist organisation.
The erstwhile spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Olufemi Soneye, had first raised the alarm last week in a widely-circulated piece.
Soneye described the trend as ‘unsettling’ explaining that it had gone beyond rumour or speculation, as dozens of affected Nigerians, professionals, entrepreneurs, and frequent travellers have received formal letters instructing them to submit their passports at the consulate in Lagos or Abuja, only to have their visas unceremoniously canceled.
According to Soneye, a media practitioner, no evidence is shared. No avenue for appeal is offered. Recipients are merely advised to reapply if they wish, an instruction that provides no comfort to those suddenly stripped of their mobility.
In some cases, he stated that the humiliation had been unbearable as travellers discovered at the airport, sometimes even at boarding gates that their visas had been quietly invalidated, while a few were briefly detained by immigration authorities before being sent home in shame.
But the US embassy in Nigeria emphasised that the Act covering current actions by the American government was not new, stressing that what is happening is that the Trump administration was tightening the noose in cases where there are indications of a potential ineligibility.
According to the note from the embassy, the consular offices hold the right to cancel visas at any time, especially when there’s a suspicion that the rules were flouted.
Besides, the embassy emphasised that although the law existed before now, this is the largest scale of such an exercise ever, insisting that it is meant to protect the American people.
