The Nigerian Police has accosted 31 producers and distributors of Russian flags in Kano and Kaduna.
“Those arrested are rioters, armed robbers, looters, and criminal elements. The arrest of criminal elements should not be described as arrest of protesters.
“Those arrested so far across the country are criminally-minded persons, looters engaged in criminal offences such as vandalization and destruction of public and critical infrastructure. “So we should use the appropriate description for them, they are not protesters.
“Again, we have been able to arrest some individuals who were calling for some fashion at who engage themselves in what I call treasonable felony.
“To carry the flags of a foreign country on a sovereign land is a criminal offense. We have arrested them.
Just this morning, we arrested one Ahmed Tailor from Kano, in Kano local government area, for producing a large quantity of Russian flags giving them to young Nigerians to go and fly for reasons best known to him.
“We are profiling him. We want to get other sponsors like him. As I speak with you, the same thing has happened in Kaduna.
“We’ve been able to arrest 30 of them with the same Russian flags and don’t want us to believe that for now, at this stage, we are still having a protest.
The undertones of this protest, based on our intelligence before it commenced on 1 August 2024, have begun to manifest.
“Because I don’t think #endbadgovernance peaceful protest should generate to a level where a foreign country’s flag will be flown in Nigeria.
“And it’s spreading from one state to another and to another place. Are we still having a protest? That is a big question for all of you.