There was commotion at the office of Nigerian Immigration Service in Ika South Council as a foreigner identified as Mr. Yaya Sule injured an officer of the Nigerian Immigration Service on duty.
The incident which occurred on Monday 15th October 2018 drew the attention of Civil servants and passers-by who rushed down to quell the assault on a Para military personnel by a foreigner from a neighbouring country, Ivory Coast.
Enquiring on the cause of the incident, it was gathered by our reporter that, some foreigners who work as tailors with a popular seamstress in Agbor, living in Agbor-Obi and Alihame, suspected to be in the country without Passport or Resident Permit from the NIS were apprehended and brought in for questioning by an officer of NIS Ika South.
A source from the NIS told reporters that they acted on a tip off from their office at Asaba, following the killings and untraceable incidents happening in the area.
The source said that on receiving the alert, they went to the residence of the foreigners to bring them in for questioning, to identify themselves.
“The law applicable all over the world is that if a foreigner enters a foreign country, he has just 90 days permission given to him at the airport or at the border and his paper is stamped by Immigration Office, then he/she can look for NIS Division when they arrives his/her final destination to register themselves. These persons have refused to identify himself or herself, and the information reaching us is that they are terrorizing the area around their environment. A killing happened recently without trace where someone was butchered. Raping, killings and other things are going on, all fingers are being pointed at these people, so we started our investigation. We found them and called them for documentation. On getting to our office, we discovered they do not have papers to identify themselves. When we went to their houses to pick them up, one of them fought my officer and ran away; even the few ones we caught started smoking Indian hemp right in our office.
I alerted our Office in Asaba, they ordered us to take them to the Police station, and detain them till they pick them up. As we were trying to inform them we are moving them to the police station, one of them (Mr. Yaya Sule) raised an object and punctured the head of one of our officers. He was able to do that because they discovered our men in this division are not armed. Had it been they went to our headquarters at Asaba and saw men with riffles, they would have comported themselves. We questioned them on when they came into the country, asking them to present the papers they came in with. They could not present any paper. I informed them that those who enter a country without means of identity are regarded as terrorists who commit crime. During my course of explaining to them, Mr. Sule stood up shouting saying that nobody can question him, or talk to him”.
Another officer narrating his ordeal with the foreigners refusing to answer questions claiming that they are not Nigerians; hence they are not answerable to the Immigration or anyone. He noted that Mr. Sule whom he said was drunk turned the interrogation into a physical battle by puncturing the head of an officer and tearing his clothes as well.
Explaining his side of the story to witnesses, Mr. Sule said he only acted on impulse as the Immigration officer was about to use a pen on him, he blocked it and used it on the Immigration officer.
It was discovered that some of the foreigners numbering over 18 escaped on seeing the Immigration officers at their residents and place of work.
The situation was calmed by Agbor Gha-Ihun Security outfit, until the arrival of Men of the Nigerian Police force who whisked them away to Agbor Police Division, to await further investigation by the Nigerian Immigration Service, Asaba.
At the time of filing this report, it was gathered that while other foreigners apprehended have been released to carry out proper documentation, Mr. Sule has remained in custody.