The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Seme border Command, has disclosed that it received 16 young Nigerians aged between 19 and 24-year-old who were deported from Ghana for allegedly committing various cybercrimes.
Comptroller Chukwuemeka Dike disclosed this at a media briefing in Seme, Lagos According to Dike these are young Nigerians, who claimed that they were deceived or intentionally went out of the country in search of greener pastures.
His words: “Ghana’s Financial and Intelligence Agency accused them of cybercrime, but from our preliminary investigation, we discovered that some of them were lured into these criminal activities due to the get-rich syndrome our youths are developing.
“Some of them are victims in the sense that they were deceived that they can make money if they leave Nigeria. Unfortunately, they don’t get the actual thing they bargained for in foreign land
“Further investigation also showed that most of them left the country through illegal land routes or through the sea without genuine travelling documents or a good source of income to other countries of the world to become prey to the authorities there.”
Stating clearly the warning of the Comptroller General of NIS, Idris Jere to Nigerians to always get genuine travellers’ documents before leaving the shores of the country adding: “Yes, we are part of the ECOWAS treaty of free movement and goods within the sub-region, but the condition is that people must enter those countries through legitimate routes and with the right travel documents.
“It is also important to have definite means of livelihood, if not, by the time you get there, they will see you as a public nuisance and they will arrest and deport you to your parent’s country.”
Dike lamented seeing young Nigerians getting involved in some unholy crime and Criminalities activities when they were supposed to be building their God-giving talents for their life.
He said that the Government of Ghana had contacted the Seme Command of NIS that they would be repatriating more Nigerians soon, particularly those on trial after the toro investigation
The controller promised to return those already repatriated to appropriate authorities after NIS must have concluded its investigation and appealed to the deportees to stop the get-rich syndrome of criminal activities and change to be good citizens of the country anywhere in the world.
“Before you travel at least get the e-passport and a genuine means of work and your good to go because we have a good relationship with all the embassies in the world
One of the deportees, 24-year-old Richard Pasca, a graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), said that he was lured to Ghana by the promise of a good Networking business in February last year, he said I would have returned back to Nigeria but no transport fare to come back, regretted being part of the deportees.
Another from Edo state Albert Christian 21 lamented “how his friend lured him to Ghana to work for his brother unfortunately no work when he finally get there.
Michael Obadidi 18, who just finished his SS2, left the country on 1st August this year to sell clothes and make good money but was unfortunate Ghana’s immigration service raided where they were staying and send him back home.