The Nigerian Immigration Service has refuted a social media report claiming that some of its operatives who purportedly mounted illegal checkpoints at the Badagry-Seme border were arrested by policemen from the Inspector General of Police Special Squad.
The IGP squad, according to the viral report, chased and arrested some police officers as well as immigration personnel found at some checkpoints believed to have been created to extort citizens.
Reacting in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, the Comptroller of Border Patrol at Seme, Emmanuel Gbemudu, denied the allegation.
He noted that none of his men were arrested, saying the border patrol has four points, and the allegation of illegal checkpoints is false.
Gbemudu said, “No immigration personnel was arrested. I saw the whole thing yesterday and I was shocked. Border Patrol has four checkpoints, and they are known to the people. The issue of illegal checkpoints does not arise. It is fake news.”
Also, the Comptroller of Immigration Service, Seme border Command, Douglas Audu said he had investigated the claim and found no truth in it.
Audu said, “There is no iota of truth in the report. To me, that is fake news. Nobody was arrested around or in our corridor. We have done our investigation and found out that nobody was picked.
“We have two commands here. There is the seme border command and we have the Lagos state border patrol command. I have done my investigation and nobody was arrested at either of the two commands. ”
All efforts to get the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi to confirm if immigration personnel were arrested proved abortive. He did not pick up calls to his line and has yet to respond to messages sent to him as of the time of filling this report.
