The Nigeria Immigration Service, Osun State Command, has arrested and paraded 55 migrants from Cameroon and the Republic of Congo over alleged irregular entry and residence in Nigeria.
According to PUNCH, the migrants were arrested at different locations across Osun State and paraded on Friday at the Immigration Command in Osogbo.
The Osun State Comptroller of Immigration, Ibrahim Akinyemi, said the arrests followed intelligence received by the Command.
He said preliminary checks conducted on the migrants revealed that they did not possess passports or other valid travel documents.
“These people are about 55. They are irregular migrants. They were arrested and brought here for repatriation. They came in through an unauthorised route,” Akinyemi said.
Migrants Arrested Across Osun
The Comptroller explained that immigration officers traced the migrants to their residences and other locations following intelligence-gathering operations.
Some of them were reportedly living in the Owode-Ede community, while the Command was continuing its search for other undocumented foreign nationals who might be residing in undisclosed locations across the state.
Akinyemi said the exercise was carried out following directives from the headquarters of the Nigeria Immigration Service through the Comptroller-General.
He added that the migrants would undergo further profiling to determine their individual immigration status and establish whether any qualified for regularisation.
Migrants Allegedly Linked to QNET
During questioning, the migrants reportedly claimed that they were in Osun State to participate in an online business known as QNET.
The Immigration Command alleged that the business activities being conducted by the migrants were not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The exact nature of their activities had not been independently established at the time the report was filed.
Akinyemi said the Command would also investigate those suspected of facilitating the migrants’ entry and accommodation in Nigeria.
Migrants Allegedly Entered Through Yola
The arrested migrants reportedly told immigration officers that they entered the country through an unauthorised route connected to Yola, Adamawa State.
Akinyemi said arrangements were being made to return those found to have violated Nigeria’s immigration laws to their countries of origin.
“By the grace of God, we are taking them back to where they came from,” he said.
One of the arrested migrants, Ismail Mohammed, a Cameroonian national, told journalists that he arrived in Osun State in February 2026.
Mohammed claimed that a woman living in Chad invited him to Osun to participate in an online business.
The Nigeria Immigration Service said the operation was only the beginning of a broader exercise to identify undocumented foreign nationals residing and conducting activities across the state.
The migrants remain subject to profiling and administrative immigration procedures, and the allegations relating to their activities have not been determined by a court.
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