Immigration deports 80 illegal aliens from Taraba

The Nigeria Immigration Service on Thursday deported 80 foreigners who were illegally residing in Taraba. Alhaji Habibu Haruna, the Controller of the service in Taraba, made the disclosure at the commencement of the exercise in Jalingo. Haruna said the service arrested 170 illegal immigrants, out of which, 80 were screened and ascertained that they had no genuine permits to live in Nigeria. He noted that most of them were from Niger Republic, who got into the country through Katsina State, while few were from the Republic of Cameroon. The controller said “we got information that there was an influx of foreigners into Taraba, perhaps due to crisis in neighbouring states. `”We sought logistic support from the Acting Governor of Taraba, Alhaji Garba Umar, to patrol the state and he supported us promptly. “The Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr David Parradang, also gave us the go ahead to arrest, screen and deport those who do not have relevant and genuine permits to live in Nigeria.’’ Haruna disclosed that the service was targeting no fewer than 500 illegal immigrants in the state, stressing that the 170 persons arrested so far followed a two-day exercise. “We are targeting 500 of them across the 16 local government areas of the state,” he said. Malam Mamman Audu, one of the arrested immigrants, told the News Agency of Nigeria that he came to attend his sister’s wedding in the state. He admitted that he came in from Niger Republic through a bush path to Katsina before proceeding to Taraba.