The Nigeria Immigration Service, Osun State Command, on Friday paraded 55 irregular migrants arrested at different locations in the state.

The service said the migrants were nationals of Cameroon and Congo and had entered the state without any documents.

Addressing journalists shortly after parading the migrants, the Osun Comptroller of Immigration, Abraham Akinyemi, said the arrests followed intelligence available to the command.

Akinyemi said, “These people are about 55. They are irregular migrants. They were arrested and brought here for repatriation. They came in through an unauthorised route. So, their stay here has become a serious nuisance. Through intelligence gathering, we were able to locate their residence, and we have to bring them here with the directive from the service headquarters through the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service. So this is just the beginning of the exercise.

“They were apprehended through intelligence gathering. We have to go to their various locations to bring them here to the office.

We have to profile, check their documents, to know which ones are eligible, or that are legal that can be regularised.

“We checked all of them, and we discovered that they don’t have any travel documents. They don’t even have ordinary passports, and they are here doing this illegal online business that is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.”

Giving further insight into the locations where the migrants were picked up, Akinyemi said some of them had taken up accommodation in Owode-Ede community, adding that the command was still on the lookout for others who might be hiding at yet-to-be-discovered locations across the state.

Akinyemi further said that under interrogation, the migrants claimed they were in the state for an online business called QNET and had refused to disclose further information about the business.

He also stated that the command would go after those involved in bringing the migrants to the state, saying, “They also claimed to have come through Yola (Adamawa State). By the grace of God, we are taking them back to where they came from.”

One of the migrants, Ismail Mohammed from Cameroon, said during an interview that he arrived in Osun in February 2026 after being invited by a lady living in Chad to do online business in the state.

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kwara State Command, said it apprehended 12 suspected illegal immigrants from Mali in the Akerebiata area of Ilorin following a tip-off from concerned residents.

The suspects were arrested on February 22, 2025, at about 10:00pm, according to the command.

They were identified as Umar Sangari, 25; Bubu Bill, 43; Modibo Keita, 26; Mahmud Jaalo, 22; Bakare Sumonu, 20; Saiku Dubia, 28; Panda Aboubacar, 32; Malle Siaka, 24; Seku Barry, 34; Lamine Bakou, 27; Baye Bolly, 24; and Zuman Traore, 26.

The suspects were reportedly occupying a two-bedroom apartment rented through a local agent under suspicious circumstances. (The PUNCH)

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