Gbenga Odogun, Lokoja Three trucks loaded with illegal migrants who claimed to be going to Ekiti State to vote in the forthcoming July 14 governorship election were, on Tuesday night, intercepted at Banda village, about four kilometers from Lokoja, along Abuja/Lokoja expressroad. Our correspondent gathered the trucks were stopped on Tuesday night when men of […]
Gbenga Odogun, Lokoja
Three trucks loaded with illegal migrants who claimed to be going to Ekiti State to vote in the forthcoming July 14 governorship election were, on Tuesday night, intercepted at Banda village, about four kilometers from Lokoja, along Abuja/Lokoja expressroad.
Our correspondent gathered the trucks were stopped on Tuesday night when men of the Nigerian Naval base who mounted road block became suspicious.
While the number of the migrants could not be ascertained, our correspondent reports that they were loaded in three trucks with registration numbers XD 1464 LD, SRZ148 XA and KMC 514 ZB respectively.
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On interrogation, some of them said they were on their way to Ekiti State to vote, and they produced voters’ cards to buttress their claims, the naval officers said.
Others allegedly claimed that they were travelling to Okene from Abuja where they had gone for business transactions.
Not satisfied with the travellers’ explanations, the men of the Nigerian Navy then transferred them to the Kogi State Command of the Nigerian immigration service for “proper profiling.”
Our correspondent who visited the state command of the Immigration Service in Lokoja on Wednesday noted that the immigrants were mainly women and young men and some children.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Kogi State Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Olasunkanmi Salami, confirmed the story but said that the travellers were still being profiled to ascertain who they were and their exact missions.
He said, “They were intercepted by men of the Nigerian Navy and handed over to us.
“We are still profiling them and I will get back to you when we conclude the profiling.”
He is yet to get back to our correspondent as at the time of filing this report.
