Longtong Yakubu, Kano
The Kano State Police Command has arrested 12 Illegal Immigrants from Mali and Niger republics who were deportees from Saudi Arabia.
The Commissioner of Police, CP Mohammed Usaini Gumel said the illegal immigrants were discovered been camped in a house located at Hotoro Yandodo quarters while nursing wounds after having altered their finger thumbs with razor blade with the view to changing their biological finger thumbs in order to evade detection by the Saudi Arabian Authorities.
Gumel stated this on Wednesday while parading the suspects along side 35 other suspects arrested within the last two weeks in the State for various crimes in the State.
According to him, the suspects were arrested on 4th June, 2023 at about 17.30hrs, acting on credible intelligence. The suspects includes six females and six males. He gave their names as: Mustapha Hamid (m), Khalil Imran (m), Muhammad Abdulsalam (m), Mohammed Ali (m), Abdulazeez Ibrahim (m), Ali Yagalas (m), Fauziyya Mohammad (f), Maryam Isa(f), Amina Ibrahim(f), Samiya Abdullahi(f), Kulut Minir(f), and Fatima Sheik(f).
“At the time of arrest, the suspects were found with self-inflicted fresh injuries on their finger thumbs by the use of razor blades. The intention is to make detection by the Saudi Arabian Authority difficult whenever they return to the country.
“At the conclusion of Police investigation, all suspects will be transferred to the Nigeria Immigration Service for further investigation,” the Commissioner noted.
One of the suspects, Mustapha Hamid (39), while narrating how he met the other immigrants said, he has been in Kano with his wife but he knew the others while he was in Saudi Arabia.
According to him, the act of scraping their finger thumbs prints will enable them to go back to Saudi Arabia within the next one or two years as new prints will grow back.
He said, “when you are deported, you won’t be able to go back until after ten years, but if you are able to change the thumb, you can go back within one or two years.
On why they came down to Nigeria instead of their base, Hamid said, Visa is cheaper from Nigeria and they are in Kano to scrap their finger prints as most of them have spent less than six months of been deported.
While thanking members of the public for their usual cooperation and support, the Police Commissioner also commended the officers for been steadfast in crime fighting, noting that, the command in the last five days have not receive any single report of mobile phone snatching across all the command in the state.
