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The Nigeria Police turned over 26 undocumented immigrants for questioning to the Nigeria Immigration Service after they were detained in Ayua, close to Auchi, last week.
The foreigners were transferred to the care of the Edo State Command of NIS on Monday, November 13, 2023, according to Edo State Police Command spokesman Chidi Nwabuzor, who made this announcement on Friday in Benin.
Nwabuzor continued, "It was found that the aliens could not identify their countries of origin or communicate in English effectively when they were questioned."
He said, “They confessed that a certain young man brought them to Nigeria through the Cameroon border. The 26 migrants comprised 16 males and eight females from Cameroon, while the remaining two, a male and a female from Burkina Faso, were reportedly arrested at Ayua-Uzaire, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, on November 9, 2023.
The Nigerian, who professed to have spent years living and working in Cameroon, only introduced himself as an excavator operator and acknowledged bringing the foreigners to the nation to assist with excavation work at the little town of Edo.
The 26 migrants have been detained in a special facility of the agency while a full investigation is conducted, according to checks at the NIS Edo headquarters in Benin. Mr. Ki Ake, the spokesman for NIS, Edo Command, has not yet commented on the matter.
The Comptroller of Immigration in Edo has ordered that undocumented immigrants be examined, profiled, and documented, an NIS source informed City Round.
He added that their arrest followed credible intelligence received by the Divisional Police Officer of Jattu divisional police headquarters
