NIDCOM reacts to report on embassy invitation of police to arrest Nigerians in Switzerland

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) on Wednesday dismissed claims that staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Switzerland called the police to arrest Nigerians in the European nation.

In a viral video on Tuesday, a Nigerian claimed the embassy staff invited police officers to arrest many people who were in the facility to process their documents.

Many of them created a scene at the embassy and accused the staff of failing to address their demands.

However, the Head of Media at NIDCOM, Abdulrahman Balogun, who reacted to the development in a statement on Wednesday, dismissed the claim on the arrest of the citizens as false.

According to him, many of those at the facility were unruly and ignored the COVID-19 protocols at the embassy.

He said staff of the embassy protection unit were later invited to restore order at the facility.

The statement read: “In line with COVID-19 protocols, the Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, is only allowed to attend to 10 applicants. However, the Mission made it possible to attend to a maximum of 20 daily, spacing out the appointments.

“But on this day, 64 Nigerians besieged the Nigerian mission in Bern. Only 10 of them were on scheduled appointments.

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“54 of them had no appointment for that day and had not made the mandatory online payment and the majority of the applicants came from Italy and Spain .without appointment or online payment.

“While the Nigerian Ambassador, Baba Madagu, was addressing them, they barged in through the front door and overcrowded a hall that was meant to receive only 10 people at a time.

“The mission did not call the police as erroneously stated in the video but invited the Embassy Protection Unit to bring calm and decorum back to the hall.

“The men of the Embassy protection unit addressed them and those on appointment as well as those who had made their online payments were attended to while others were advised to follow the due process, with an assurance that everyone will be attended to as long as the rules were followed.

“We appeal to Nigerians abroad to be good ambassadors of Nigeria wherever they are and obey laws put in place.”

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