ABUJA: Nigeria has arrested seven Polish nationals for raising Russian flags during anti-government protests this week in the northern state of Kano, Peter Afunanya, a spokesperson for the state security service, said on Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been protesting since Aug. 1 against President Bola Tinubu’s painful economic reforms that have seen a partial end to petrol and electricity subsidies, currency devaluation and inflation touching three-decade highs.
Some protesters waved Russian flags during protests this week in northern states, underscoring concerns about increased Russian activity in western Africa. Security services detained some of the tailors they said had made the banners.
Afunanya said the Poles were detained during efforts by the Department of State Services to enforce security. He gave no details as to who they were, but said the operations were not targeting Polish citizens.
Stanislaw Gulinski, a Polish consul to Nigeria, confirmed the arrests at a meeting between Nigeria’s foreign minister and diplomats in the capital, Abuja.
“They were arrested two days ago in Kano and last I heard, they were on the plane to Abuja from Kano,” he said.
Gulinski declined to comment further when approached by Reuters.
Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Christopher Musa, has called the brandishing of a foreign flag during anti-government protests as a “treasonable offense” after he held security talks with President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
In the northern states of Borno, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina, protesters were seen waving hundreds of Russian flags, with some calling for a military takeover.
The Russian embassy in Nigeria denied any involvement.
Nigeria arrests seven Polish nationals for raising Russian flags at protests
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Nigeria arrests seven Polish nationals for raising Russian flags at protests
- Some protesters waved Russian flags during protests this week in northern states, underscoring concerns about increased Russian activity in western Africa
- Stanislaw Gulinski, a Polish consul to Nigeria, confirmed the arrests at a meeting between Nigeria’s foreign minister and diplomats
French police raid home of culture minister in graft probe
- Raid comes as Rachida Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year
- Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling
PARIS: French police on Thursday searched the homes of Culture Minister Rachida Dati, as well as the ministry and the Paris town hall she presides over, as part of a corruption probe, prosecutors said.
The police raid comes as Dati, who heads the town hall in the seventh district of Paris, is campaigning to be elected mayor of the French capital next year.
Dati, 60, has been accused of accepting nearly 300,000 euros ($343,000) in undeclared payments from major energy group GDF Suez while a member of the European parliament between 2010 and 2011. She has denied any wrongdoing.
The national financial prosecutor’s office on Thursday said the raids came after it had opened an investigation on October 14 into Dati over possible corruption, influence peddling and embezzlement of public funds.
Dati held a seat in the European parliament from 2009 to 2019 on behalf of France’s main right-wing party, and has been repeatedly accused of influence peddling.
Accusations that she was lobbying on behalf of GDF Suez first emerged in French media reports in 2013 and the European parliament’s ethics committee questioned her.
French investigative television show “Complement d’Enquete” and the Nouvel Observateur magazine renewed the allegations in June.
Dati wants to become the French capital’s second woman mayor in a row in the March 2026 municipal vote.
She hopes to replace Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, 66, who is to step down after two terms in the post.
