By Evelyn Usman

About 101 illegal migrants have been arrested in Lekki and Ajah areas of Lagos State by officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS.

Some of those paraded by the Lagos State Command of  NIS before they were repatriated include some Nigeriens, Chadians, Ghanaians, Beninnoise and Togolese.

Preliminary investigations showed that they exceeded the 90 days stipulated period of visit by the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.

Comptroller of Immigration, in-charge of the command, Mrs Clara Okogie, explained that the arrest was aimed at reducing the influx of illegal and irregular migrants in the state.

She added that the areas were raided following intelligence report that foreigners were constituting nuisance and security threat in the community.

On his part, spokesperson for the command, Jide Ogungbe, a Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, explained that “they were on ECOWAS visit and ECOWAS protocol allows people from member states to come to Nigeria or any of the countries for a period of 90 days.

“But these ones over-stayed their welcome and did not come to regularise themselves. They are irregular migrants because they have gone against the provision of the ECOWAS protocol.”