The Qatari Ministry of Interior has dismissed reports claiming that it imposed new visa restrictions on Nigerian passport holders.

A ministry official told the BBC Pidgin on Wednesday that there are no restrictions on Nigerians seeking to visit Qatar.

Social media reports had alleged that Qatari authorities introduced a travel ban preventing male applicants from entering the country unless they were travelling with their families.

The reports also claimed that only women or families could apply for visas, with additional requirements of a five-star hotel booking and a return flight ticket before applying for a travel or transit visa.

According to the viral reports, the notification cited frequent cases of overstays by Nigerian travellers as the reason.

However, according to the BBC, Hayya, Qatar’s digital platform for e-visa services, clarified that the visa application process remains unchanged.

“There has been no suspension or changes to the current procedures. If any updates are to be made, they will be announced on our official platforms,” it stated.

The Federal Road Safety Corps says it will collaborate with the Nigerian Army on intelligence sharing and organisation of periodic workshops for security agencies.

The Zonal Commanding Officer in charge of Lagos and Ogun states, Mrs Ann Oladayo, an Assistant Corps Marshal, said this in a statement issued on Wednesday in Lagos.

Oladayo listed other areas for collaboration to include security cover for special operations, training and retraining of drivers and vehicles safety.

She said this when she led other senior officers of the corps to the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Farouk Mijinyawa.

According to her, the visit is in a bid to promote the FRSC 2025 Strategic goal two as a lead agency in traffic management and administration in the country.

”The corps would like to bring our professionalism to help in training your new Army recruits in driving. We will also want to engage some of your retiring officers, who intend taking driving as a profession.”

Responding, the GOC said that though, the responsibilities of the Nigerian Army was enormous, it has been able to stabilise security in both states.

Mijinyawa said that the Army was currently collaborating with other security agencies like FRSC, the Police, Customs and others to ensure safety and security of lives.

He pledged the Army’s continuous support and collaboration with the FRSC to ensure safety and security.

In a related development, the FRSC ZCO also visited the Zonal Coordinator, Nigerian Correctional Service; Zone A, Lagos, ACG Ope Fatinikun, where inter-agencies collaboration and synergy were also discussed.

During the interactive session, questions bothering on stigmatisation of ex-convicts, drivers’ license acquisition, and management of road traffic offenders charged to correctional facilities were addressed.

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife Begona Gomez on Wednesday denied in court misusing public funds by hiring a personal assistant in an embezzlement probe that has rattled the leftist government, legal sources said.

The long-running investigation is one of several into Sanchez’s family and former close allies that have embarrassed the Socialist leader and heaped pressure on his minority coalition.

Judge Juan Carlos Peinado set off the saga in April 2024 by opening an investigation to determine whether Gomez exploited her position as Sanchez’s wife for private benefit.

The latest development centres on whether an official employed in the premier’s office, Cristina Alvarez, worked for Gomez during her past academic job at Madrid’s Complutense University.

If that were true, it could “represent a diversion of public resources in favour of private interests”, Peinado wrote in his ruling that summoned both women.

Gomez only replied to her lawyer on Wednesday during a fourth closed-door hearing before Peinado in Madrid, according to legal sources.

She said spouses of previous prime ministers hired staff to coordinate their agenda and security, the sources added.

Gomez said Alvarez never helped her in her private professional activities, though she occasionally sent messages that did not affect her primary work, according to the sources.

Sanchez has dismissed the allegations against his wife as an attempt to undermine his government by the right, which has demanded his resignation.

This month he said there were “judges who do politics and politicians who try to do justice” and denounced spurious complaints by groups with far-right ties.

Separate corruption probes have ensnared two former Socialist heavyweights, Santos Cerdan and ex-transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, as well as the prime minister’s younger brother David Sanchez.

The legal troubles compound woes for the minority government which engages in laborious negotiations with an array of fringe and regional separatist parties to try to pass legislation.

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