NIS Arrests 55 Irregular Migrants From Cameroon, DR Congo In Osun

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Osun State Command, has arrested 55 irregular migrants from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo across different locations in the state.

The migrants were reportedly apprehended for allegedly entering Nigeria through unauthorised routes and staying in the country without valid travel documents.

The Osun Comptroller of Immigration, Ibrahim Akinyemi, disclosed this on Friday while briefing journalists after the migrants were paraded by the command.

Akinyemi explained that the arrests followed intelligence gathering by the command, which enabled officials to trace the migrants to their various residences before bringing them to the command for profiling and possible repatriation.

He said, “These people are about 55. They are irregular migrants. They were arrested and brought here for repatriation. They came in through an unauthorised route. So, their stay here has become a serious nuisance.

“Through intelligence gathering, we were able to locate their residence, and we have to bring them here with the directive from the service headquarters through the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service. So this is just the beginning of the exercise.

“They were apprehended through intelligence gathering. We have to go to their various locations to bring them here to the office. We have to profile, check their documents, to know which ones are eligible, or that are legal that can be regularised.

“We checked all of them, and we discovered that they don’t have any travel documents. They don’t even have ordinary passports, and they are here doing this illegal online business that is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.”

Akinyemi added that some of the migrants were found in Owode-Ede community, while the command was continuing efforts to locate others believed to be staying in undisclosed areas of the state.