British secret agency, M16, police proposed £3,000 visa bond against Nigeria – REPORT

A report from a United Kingdom based journal,
University World News, has said the £3,000
visa pilot scheme against Nigeria was proposed
by the British intelligence service, MI6 and
British police headquarters at Scotland Yard.
The new UK visa scheme will impose £3,000
(US$4,740) in charges on unspecified visa
applicants thought to be ‘high risk visitors’
from Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh, India and
Pakistan.
The Nigerian government has threatened
retaliatory measures if London goes ahead with
the ‘refundable’ but unpopular visa bond.
The report said there was palpable anger and
disappointment among Nigerians who have
gained admission into British universities for
the upcoming academic session.
Students already in UK institutions are also
unhappy about a new ‘visa bond’ scheme to be
implemented against ‘high risk’ visitors by the
David Cameron’s administration.
As a precautionary measure, many parents
have instructed Nigerian banks to suspend, for
now, sending tuition and accommodation fees
to British universities, the report noted.
The report written by Professor Tunde Fatunde,
a Nigerian scholar quoted diplomatic sources
in Abuja, as saying that both the M16 and the
Scotland Yard, are reportedly worried that
some foreign students who apply for visas to
study in British universities have developed, in
their home countries, ideas and determination
to commit terrorism on British soil.
The report said, the visa bond is believed to be
a subtle way of ensuring that students who are
labelled as ‘high risk’ know that they will be
targets of intelligence surveillance while they
are studying at British universities.
It quoted a diplomat, who did not want to be
named, as saying that Ghana was included on
the ‘high risk’ country list because its airport
and seaports were thought to be avenues for
Latin American drug cartels who use some
Ghanian students as drug couriers.
The same diplomat said some students from
Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh had
been involved in terrorism in Britain.
He cited the examples of Umar Farouk
Abdulmuttalab, a Nigerian and former student
of University College London, who tried to
blow up an American plane in December 2009,
and student Michael Adebolajo, a Nigerian-
born Briton, who recently hacked a British
soldier to death.
“The British government is convinced that the
use of visa bond may go a long way to make
Britain safe,” the diplomat said.
The diplomat also revealed that the visa bonds
would be extended to some non-students
thought to be high risk and hinted that British
embassies might collaborate with local
intelligence services in collecting evidence on
some visa applicants.