Lagos Got Rid Of Togolese Immigrants

The first group of the immigrants arrived the country passing through bush paths to avoid been arrested by the officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, and went straight to  the South-West Zonal office of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally-Displaced Persons, NCFRMI in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Lagos State government has finally succeeded in the repatriation of the Togolese Immigrants who came to seek asylum in the state three months ago. The repatriation was achieved last Saturday, two weeks after the state government lamented the pressure their continued stay was putting on its relief facilities.

They were moved to the Igbogbo Camp, Ikorodu, a centre managed by the Federal Government. The news of Nigeria’s magnanimity reached other immigrants in Benin Republic where they had camped for 10 years seeking asylum after fleeing their home following the post-election violence which erupted after the April 27th, 2005 presidential election in the country.

Others left the French speaking country to join their brothers in Nigeria. But as the number of the immigrants increased, the one-storey building secured by the commission as shelter for immigrants and displaced persons could not accommodate them.

The inability of the commission to accommodate more immigrants, sources said, forced the new batch of Togolese who had stormed the commission’s office in Ikoyi, seeking for asylum to sleep on the ever busy road.

Their continued stay on the walkway and the security threat pose by their action, caught the attention of the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode who directed the State Emergency management Agency, LASEMA to transfer the 114 immigrants outside the commission to the two relief Camps in the state.