Immigration Nabs 300 Illegal Aliens In Rivers

Indigenes of Niger Republic and other foreign nationals illegally living in Rivers State may have gone into hiding following the on-going clamp down on illegal immigrants by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

Sources disclosed to The Tide that the operation which started on Monday may have led to the arrest of more than three hundred illegal aliens living in the state.

The operation has also led to the disappearance from the streets of Port Harcourt and environs of beggars from Niger Republic and  other countries.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt, the Comptroller, Rivers State Command, of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr Steve Fimibama said that the exercise was aimed at easing out illegal immigrants in the state.

Fimibama, said that the command is targeting those who refused to participate in the registration of aliens recently conducted by the  Nigerian Immigration Service, stressing that the objective was to enable the NIS to have full information on the activities of aliens residing in any part of the country.

According to him, “ in this era of terrorism, there is the need to register them, to know where they live and the activities they engage in”.

The Immigration boss used the occasion to debunk insinuations that the exercise was aimed at easing out of the state Nigerians of northern extraction, describing it as a figment of some people’s imagination.