immigration in Oyo nabs 144 traffickers, 2,000 illegal immigrants, rescues 75 minors in 4 months

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By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The Oyo State Comptroller of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mrs Victoria Isangedighi has hinted that the command arrested 144 traffickers and rescued 131 children and minor between February and June this year.
Mrs Isangedighi who dropped this hint while receiving members of the Oyo Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondents Chapel into her office during a courtesy visit on her disclosed that the command has also apprehended over 2,000 illegal immigrants during the period.
According to the Oyo NIS Comptroller, of the 144 traffickers, 75 were Nigerians while the rest 69 were non-Nigerians while 56 of the 131 rescued children were reunited with their Nigerian parents.
The Comptroller declared that the 131 children were rescued through intelligence and surveillance effort during various operations by men of the Oyo NIS Command at different locations within the state.
“We have arrested about 144 traffickers since February. Out of this figure, 75 of them are Nigerians while the remaining 69 are non-Nigerians. Also,131 children have been rescued from various human traffickers,”she said.
The Comptroller added that seventy-five of the rescued children “are minors while the remaining 56 have been reunited to their parents because they are Nigerian”.
Mrs Isangedighi pointed out that 12 of the cases requiring further investigation and prosecution has been transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other related Matters (NAPTIP) for further action.
Commenting on the over 2,000 illegal immigrants, she stressed that the command was able to discover that they  were with either fake or invalid documents while in the country and that in the last two months of her assumption of office, the Command has registered up to 7,300 foreigners from across the ECOWAS countries who have shown interesting in staying within the jurisdiction of the command from the neighbouring West African countries.
Chairman of the Correspondents Chapel, Mr Olaoluwa Ajayi while speaking, advised the NIS Comptroller to take advantage of the willingness of members of the Chapel to achieve success, saying the visit was to familiarise the chapel with the new Comptroller and to seek clarification on issues pertaining to efforts of the Command.
Commending the new Comptroller for the face lift and various on-going efforts aimed at improving the service of the Command, he assured the NIS Command of the chapel’s readiness to support and partner it to ensure her success in the interest of the nation.

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