Uyo – The Akwa Ibom command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said it repatriated 18 illegal immigrants to their various countries through Seme border.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Ibisha Jaja, made the disclosure in a statement issued in Uyo on Monday.

He said the repatriated illegal immigrants included 10 Burkinabes, seven Togolese and one Beninoise.

He added that the figure brings to 630, the number of illegal immigrants so far repatriated from the state by the command this year.

He noted that the command had earlier repatriated 612 irregular African nationals to their countries of origin in the first five months of this year.

They were mainly from Niger, Cameroun, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, Gambia and Togo.

Jaja said the command had this month (July), rescued a victim of human trafficking and arrested the suspected trafficker.

“The suspect, together with the victim, were on their way to Lagos for onward movement to Canada,” he added.

The public relations officer said the command had handed over the two to the state office of NAPTIP.

The Immigration image maker noted that the Comptroller of Immigration in Akwa Ibom, Alhaji Garba Abdullahi, had attributed the achievements of the command to the support of the state government.

He quoted Abdullahi as thanking Gov. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom for the logistic support given the command for its daily operations.