immigrants arrested weekend, during a joint raid with policemen
attached to Area 'A' Command, Lion Building, in two hotels in Lagos,
were neither terrorists nor Ebola patients, as widely rumored.
Rather, it explained that the immigrants were legally in the country
and had the necessary documents.
A breakdown of the arrest as disclosed by the Comptroller of
Immigration, Lagos State Command, Justina Ahmadu, showed that 41 of
the immigrants were Congolese while four were Senegalese.
Out of the 41 Congolese, two of them according to Ahmadu were refugees
registered in Nigeria, with the National Commission for Refugees,
while 39 others were on transit enroute Czech Republic.
Their arrest as gathered, followed information received by the Police
and NIS that some foreigners from the Ebola infected countries had
sneaked into Nigeria.
Their apprehension further sent panic across Lagos state, as it was
rumoured that they were Ebola patients who fled from where they were
quarantined in their respective countries.
Describing such claim as false, Ahmadu explained that a profile on the
immigrants showed they did not enter the country illegally.
Consequently the immigrants as gathered, were released at about 1am on Saturday.
According to her: "On Friday, August 29, 2014 , at about 7pm, we
carried a joint operation with the Nigerian Police Area A command, at
the Travelers Inn Hotels Lagos Island, where we arrested a total of 45
immigrants comprising 39 Congolese , former Zaire; two Congolese
refugees registered in Nigeria with the National Commission for
Refugees and four Senegalese.
"On profiling them, It was discovered that the Congolese entered the
country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA with
valid travel documents and appropriate transit visa en-route Czech
republic.Their mission in Nigeria is to obtain Czech republic visa in
Abuja. They are all artists.
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