NIS rescues 40 human traffic victims, arrests 10 offenders in Oyo

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Oyo State Command, has rescued 40 human traffic victims and arrested 10 trafficking offenders in year 2020.

The NIS Comptroller in the state, Usman Babangida, disclosed this on Wednesday in Ibadan.

Babangida said that 30 of the rescued victims were Beninese, five Togolese and five Nigeriens.

He further said that 35 of the victims had been reunited with their families while five were repatriated.

He called on those engaging in human trafficking to desist from such act before the full wrath of the law catches them.

The comptroller said that the officers of the command conduct regular border patrol and had informants that gave them information on happening in border areas.

He said that Oyo State had three major control posts at Wasimi, Okerete and Igbokoko and they were regularly manned by the officers to prevent illegal entries.

The comptroller said that for many reasons the officers in the state cannot man all entries due to the porous nature of the borders in the state.

“But they were doing their best in patrolling some border base.

“Even if all the officers in the state are deployed, they will not be able to cover one-third of the entry points.

“We encourage our officers to establish community relations to get information, intelligent on what is happening in the areas,’’ Babangida said.

Speaking on e-registration of migrant, the comptroller told said that 28,461 migrants were registered in the state since Aug. 30, 2019, till date.

He said the registration was for the foreigners that would stay in the country for a period of 90 days and beyond.

The comptroller called on foreigners, who have not registered, to come out and registration to avoid been arrested.