The Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has intercepted two Indian nationals for irregular entry into the country without proper documentation.
The two male nationals were detected on Saturday during the screening of outbound passengers being evacuated to India from the airport.
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It was learnt that the two nationals entered Nigeria through the land border.
According to the Lagos Airport Comptroller of the NIS, Abdullahi Usman, the Indian nationals were in possession of visa on arrival application approval which they failed to present to Immigration at the border.
Usman disclosed that both of them had been in Cotonu, Benin Republic for a month as they had the stamp of that country dated 9th February 2020 when they left.
He stated that they entered Nigeria irregularly as they did not present themselves for Immigration checks at the border.
The Comptroller said the two, who are 32 and 29-year old, will be prosecuted according to the Nigeria Immigration laws to serve as a deterrence to others.
If found guilty, the nationals risk fine, custodial sentence of maximum of 10 years or both.
446 Indians evacuated
Meanwhile, no fewer than 446 Indian nationals were evacuated from Nigeria on Saturday, the 20th of June 2020 as part of the ongoing evacuation of foreign nationals.
Saturday’s evacuation brought the total number of the Indian citizens evacuated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic to over 1,300.
Air India and Nigeria’s major carrier, Air Peace have been carrying out the evacuation flights.
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