The Nigerian Immigration Service, Benue State command, on Friday said it deported a total number of 26 illegal immigrants in the state. The law breakers are from Republic of Niger, Cameroon and Benin.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in Makurdi, the comptroller General in charge of Benue state, Alhaji Yunusa Yahaya said that the immigrants were not having legal documents to have qualified them for staying in the state and said that the deportation had been going on since January 2012.
“We are still working but the ones that we have shifted between early this year have been taken out. We have taken up to 26 Nigeriens out, we have taken some Cameroonians out, and we have also taken some Beninese out. It is something we do every day”.
But the Comptroller General did not say whether the immigrants were members of the faceless Boko Haram sect, just as he insisted that those the command had taken out of the country were not in any way Nigerian citizens.
On the effort of the command toward curtailing the illegal activities of the Boko Haram group, Alhaji Yahaya stated, “Whether there is Bkoko Haram or not, we are making serious effort in arresting and deporting those who do not have legal papers. If they are members of the group, we don’t have the right to know. All we do is that anyone who is not a Nigerian and do not have legal documents, we take them out and that is exactly what we have been trying to do”, he said.