The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has arrested 516 illegal immigrants in Kaduna State during a mop-up operation by Immigration officials in the Zaria area of the State.
This was disclosed by the state Immigration Controller in Kaduna State Liman Sani Kila.
Speaking to journalists, Kila said that the illegal immigrants who are from Niger Republic, Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and Chad. were arrested following actionable intelligence.
Kila also said that more than one thousand Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were recovered from illegal immigrants during a sting operation in various parts of the Kaduna metropolis.
According to the NIS Controller, some of the illegal immigrants also have local government indigene forms.
“If you are not a Nigerian and you are in possession of a permanent voters card (PVC), you’ve committed an offense, you have to be arrested and be eased out,” he said.
“We have done that in the past and those of them that are practically here, they are being profiled and when they are profiled, we are going to find out whether some of them are still in possession of PVCs because they are from a different zone.
“The last zone was Kaduna zone. We retrieved more than 1000 PVCs. Now as they are being profiled, officers are still checking to find out if they are in possession of this card.
“Not only PVCs, but some of them are also even in possession of local government indigene forms which we are going to retrieve.
“The greater number are from Niger, carrying like 65%, then we have nationals from Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and Chad.
“And by his grace, we are moving to the other zone which is Kafanchan zone, all in an effort to make sure that non-Nigerians do not participate in the electoral process.”
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
