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Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of Foreign Affairs, has advised Nigerians with valid travel documents and plans to visit the United States to shun the travel warning by one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aides.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, had on Monday advised Nigerians with no urgent reason to visit the US to suspend their travel plans pending when there is clarity on Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

However, Onyeama while speaking with journalists in Abuja, on Tuesday, urged Nigerians to ignore the travel warning.

Onyeama at the briefing refuted the report that Nigerians were being sent back at the US borders, adding that he had reached out to the US ambassador who he said denied the incident. He insisted that his ministry was the right authority to speak on the nation’s external relations and asked the public to ignore the alleged barring of Nigerians by the US Government. The minister stressed that the most authentic sources of information on the issue of the nation’s foreign relations should be the President’s spokespersons and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said, “On the issue of Nigerians being turned back from the US, this is not the case. If the Nigerian government is speaking on any external relations, you will hear it from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Office of the President.

“I have reached out to the US Ambassador to Nigeria and the country’s high level officials who said nothing of such had happened. I can tell you to ignore the advice to reconsider travelling to the US because there is no basis for that,” he added. Onyeama said Nigeria is not among the countries currently under US travel ban, noting that both countries enjoyed cordial bilateral relations.

But a victim of the US travel ban, Francis Adekola, had narrated how he was detained for over 10 hours at the Atlanta Airport on February 15, and then placed on the next available flight  and returned to Abuja via Johannesburg. A software engineer, Celestine Omin, had also tweeted his experience with the US border protection guards who delayed him and subjected him to mental humiliation when he visited America on the invitation of a tech firm, Andela.

The US Mission to Nigeria, however, denied that Nigerian citizens were barred from visiting America, pointing out that those denied entry might have had immigration issues peculiar to them.

The embassy spokesman, Russel Brooks, said Nigeria was not among countries affected by Trump’s executive order on immigration.

“On the statement  issued by the special assistant to the president, again Nigeria was not named among the six countries, Nigerians are still able to travel to the US just as they were previously. An individual’s ability to travel to the US is based on that individual’s circumstances,” Brooks said, noting that the US Department of Homeland Security which  was in charge of all the US ports of entry was free to allow or deny entry to any visitor.

He advised those barred from entering America to contact the homeland security department for clarification on their cases. — Punch.

— Mar 8, 2017 @ 7:05 GMT

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