By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday arrested no fewer than 52 irregular immigrants in different parts of Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, will repatriate them today.
The suspects, 45 Nigeriens and seven Ghanaians, were discovered to have gained entrance into the country through non-designated routes.
The state Comptroller of Immigration, Mrs Abimbola Abiodun-Ojo, said some of the irregular immigrants resisted arrest, injured a personnel of the service and also damaged it vehicle the during a routine mop up operations of the service.
The irregular immigrants were picked up at Offa-Garage, Oke-Andi/Zango, Lajorin and Gambari areas, all within Ilorin city.
Mrs Abiodun-Ojo, who spoke to newsmen in Ilorin, said men of the Service swung into action because the idled suspects could be easily induced to constitute security threat.
She stated that one of her men was injured by some of the suspects who tried to resist arrest but were later overpowered.
She said: “The usual practice and one of the statutory responsibilities of the service is to go on mop up of irregular immigrants within the state. The mop up was carried out yesterday (Wednesday) and because of security challenges in Nigeria, we feel that some of these irregular immigrants could be co-opted into being used as tools towards disturbance, and also to make Nigeria unbearable because an idle mind could be the devil’s workshop.
“So, these are the major reasons why we said we should embark on the mop up exercise, particularly because of the festive season, a lot of them would be looking for cheap money, and they could be contracted by anyone. When you are idled, you could be easily contracted and violent too.”
Continuing, she said: “We carried out these raids at different locations. These are Offa-Garage, Oke-Andi/Zango axis, Lajorina and Gambari areas of Ilorin. We feel we should do this because they are prone to violence. They constitute security threat.
“Most of them are mainly public charges in the sense that they did not come through the approved routes. They didn’t have any documents on them. It was after they have been profiled that we knew that they were Nigeriens and Ghanaians. Hopefully, they would be repatriated to their countries. That is what we do.”