Fears Over Influx Of Foreigners Into Benue, Abia

[TGD]

 THE influx of people suspected to be foreigners into Makurdi and other parts of Benue State in the wake of the security challenges tormenting the country is generating a lot of fears among the indigenes of the state.

Investigations by The Guardian revealed that most of such new entrants hardly speak English or the native languages, but can only speak Hausa and engage in commercial motorcycle business popularly called okada, as well as other menial hawking businesses in the cities of the state.

There has also been influx of aliens into Umuahia, the Abia State capital, which retired Navy Captain Chris Osondu, who is the Security Adviser to Governor Theodore Orji, said both Immigration and law enforcement officials were handling.

In Makurdi, those among them who are into okada business looked strange and were not conversant with the routes in the cities, and even the fares for various destinations.

Reacting to the development, a businesswoman in Makurdi told The Guardian that she had boarded a motorcycle from High-Level Round About to go to the Federal Secretariat but the rider could not know the location until she guided him.

Similarly, a student, Joseph Akuse said he took an okada to Benue State University but the rider could not know the location of the institution, and it was even difficult to communicate with him.

The student who described the influx as worrisome and dangerous called on the Association of Motorcycle Riders in the state to screen its members with a view to apprehending impostors in the business and emulate their sister union, the Town Service Buses, by issuing their members with identification numbers so as to fish out fake members.

Reacting to the development, the state chairman, Motorcycle Hirers Association, Mr. Augustine Akaa, intimated that the association had set up a task force to check the trend, adding that a database of their members is also being compiled.

Akaa further told The Guardian that the association would soon provide identification cards to genuine members; adding that a bill to regulate the operational activities of members has been sent to the state House of Assembly.

The state Controller of Immigration Service, Ibrahim Auta, who confirmed the influx of people into the state, said they were mostly people running away from other states due to the ensuing crisis.

He, however, advised such immigrants from other states to be of good behaviour.

Osondu, who charged the people of Abia State to be at alert and report irregular and strange movements around them, however, explained that the influx was not peculiar to the state and attributed it to what he called the global economic situation.

He added that the majority of the aliens came from Niger Republic, which has adverse weather condition, noting however, that the ECOWAS Protocol permits member states' citizens free movement into member states, provided they have necessary permits.

But he urged landlords to be wary of those they offer tenancy by first ascertaining their backgrounds.



The Guardian