The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) on Sunday said it repatriated 25 illegal migrants from Rivers State.
Mr Ishaka Haliru, Comptroller, Rivers command of the service, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt.
He said the affected migrants were citizens of ECOWAS member states and four others who breached immigration laws.
He said the command was ready to curb the influx of illegal migrants in the state.
Haliru urged Nigerians who planned to travel to any neighbouring country to obtain ECOWAS passports to avoid illegal entry or embarrassment by the immigration service.
“We recently repatriated 25 illegal migrants from ECOWAS member states. The majority of them are Togolese and four others from non ECOWAS states.
“It is only a person who has regularised his stay within 90 days that is permitted to either establish a legal business or work in the country. This is in line with Immigration’s focus treaty,” he said.
Haliru said that officers of the command had displayed high level of vigilance to tackle passport racketeering.
“We do not experience passport racketeering in Rivers. The investigation and intelligence units are working in synergy to check proliferation of passports in the state,” he said.
The comptroller also said the command did not lose any personnel during the March 19 re-run legislative polls in the state.
He described as untrue, a report which said it lost an officer during the election, saying that the victim belonged to “Peace Corps.”
He said Peace Corps’ uniform was like that of Immigration Service which made people to believe that the victim was of the Immigration Service.
He urged the Federal Government to take measures to check proliferation of uniforms by private security agencies. (NAN)
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