Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said that about 11,000 immigrants repatriated or refused admission recently were not members of? the? Boko Haram sect.
The Public Relations Officer of the service and an assistant Comptroller of the Service, Mr. Joachim Olumba made this clarification in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP.
The statement reads in part: “it has become very necessary following speculations that those affected by the exercise were members of the infamous Boko Haram group.?
Perhaps, it is proper to emphasize that any immigrant identified by Nigeria Immigration Service as a member of the dreaded religious sect would be handed over to the State Security Service or other relevant security agencies for appropriate action before deportation.
“Therefore, we wish to categorically state that the Nigeria Immigration Service never eased out any immigrant from the country on the ground of his or her membership of the Boko Haram sect.? All the immigrants either refused entry or repatriated recently had no valid travel documents or any visible means of livelihood.”
The statement further explained that those who were refused admission had no contact addresses in Nigeria, while some of their counterparts who were repatriated were merely squatters in uncompleted buildings without proper addresses.
“Since it is very difficult exercising control over immigrants without valid travel documents or contact addresses and means of livelihood, it became imperative for the Nigeria Immigration Service to ease them out of the country.”
Olumba, according to the statement, added that although the prevailing state of insecurity in the country orchestrated by the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram sect was widely believed to be receiving external impetus and had been of great concern to the authorities of the Service, the recent removal of irregular migrants from the country had nothing to do with the sect but basically in accordance with regulations governing the control of immigrants.
Maintaining that there was nothing unusual about the exercise, as repatriation, deportation and refusal of admission are common practices in migration management, the Immigration spokesman said the Service by its current drive to drastically reduce the incidence of irregular migration into the country was merely living up to its statutory mandate.