The Edo State Police Command said it has handed over the 26 undocumented migrants arrested last week to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in the state.
Spokesman for the state police command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, disclosed this while giving update on the migrants’ arrest.
He said they were moved to the custody of Nigeria Immigration Service, Edo command headquarters, Ikpoba Hill, Benin on Monday, November 13, 2023.
The spokesman, Nigeria Immigration Service, Edo Command, Mr. Ki Ake, was yet to comment on the migrants’ issue as at the time of filing this report.
Checks at the NIS state command headquarters revealed that the 26 migrants have been kept in a special facility of the service as investigation progresses.
It was further scooped that the Comptroller of Immigration in Edo has directed that the migrants should be discreetly screened, profiled and documented.
Checks also revealed that NIS investigators revisited Afua village in Uzaure, Etsako West local government area of Edo State, where they were arrested and claimed to be working with an excavator private firm.
An insider source hinted our correspondent that the migrants are expected to be issued work permit by NIS if investigation absolved them of constituting security threats to Nigeria.
Unverified information hinted that the migrants are receiving special care inside the NIS facility in Benin.
Twenty-four of the migrants, 16 males and eight females, are Cameroonians; the other two, a male and a female, are from Burkina Faso. They were reportedly arrested at Afua village in Uzaure, Etsako West local government area of Edo State, on November 9th, 2023.
Police spokesman in Edo, SP Nwabuzor, paraded the foreigners before journalists at the command headquarters, Benin, Friday, November 10, 2023.
He said their arrest followed credible intelligence received by the DPO of Jattu divisional police headquarters.
“Upon interrogation it was discovered that they could not effectively express themselves in English language, the little they could was to identify their own country and that is how we were able to know the numbers from each country.
“They confessed that a certain young man brought them to Nigeria through Cameroon bounder,” SP Nwabuzor said.
However, a man who identified himself simply as an excavator operator said he brought them into Nigeria to join in the excavation contract he got as he is a Nigerian who had lived and worked in Cameroon.
