Immigration Service says police did not arrest its officers

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Lagos State Border Patrol Command at Seme said on Thursday that none of their officers were arrested for extortion on the border corridor with the Benin Republic.

Some media publications stated on Thursday that a special squad of the Inspector-General of Police arrested the Immigration officers for extortion on Wednesday.

DSI Enoch Aparshe, spokesman of the Seme Command of the NIS, stated that men of the two commands were at their duty points along the Badagry-Seme Motorway.

Aparshe stated that the attention of the two commands was drawn to Thursday’s publication in some newspapers that the I-G’s taskforce monitoring the Lagos-Badagry Expressway arrested immigration officers along the corridor.

“Sincerely, our officers were at their duty posts in Agbara, Gbaji, and Seme, and the patrol teams did their work without any molestation or harassment throughout Aug. 9.

“There was nothing like confrontation or arrest from any quarters or by the police taskforce. There is nothing like a report of arrest of any officer from the two commands,’’ he stated.

Aparshe added that Comptroller Douglas Audu, Comptroller of Seme Command, and Comptroller Emmanuel Gbemudu, Comptroller, Lagos State Border Patrol, Seme, were taken aback by the publication.

Some media reports on Thursday stated that the I-G’s squad chased and arrested some police and Immigration officers at some Seme-Badagry checkpoints on Wednesday.

The reports stated that the officers set up the checkpoints purely to extort motorists.