The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says it has arrested 516 non-Nigerians in possession of permanent voters cards (PVCs) in Zaria LGA of Kaduna state.
Speaking with journalists in a video posted on Friday by AIT, Liman Kila, Kaduna NIS comptroller, said the illegal immigrants were from Niger Republic, Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and Chad.
Kila said the service retrieved 1,000 PVCs from illegal immigrants arrested within the Kaduna zone during mop-up operations last year.
“If you are not a Nigerian and you are in possession of a permanent voters card (PVC), you’ve committed an offense, you have to be arrested and be eased out,” he said.
“We have done that in the past and those of them that are practically here, they are being profiled and when they are profiled, we are going to find out whether some of them are still in possession of PVCs because they are from a different zone.
“The last zone was Kaduna zone. We retrieved more than 1000 PVCs. Now as they are being profiled, officers are still checking to find out if they are in possession of this card.
“Not only PVCs, but some of them are also even in possession of local government indigene forms which we are going to retrieve.
“The greater number are from Niger, carrying like 65%, then we have nationals from Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and Chad.
“And by his grace, we are moving to the other zone which is Kafanchan zone, all in an effort to make sure that non-Nigerians do not participate in the electoral process.”
