JOWAI: Police of West and East Jaintia Hills districts have arrested five Nigerian nationals since Wednesday.
While three were arrested in West Jaintia Hills early on Thursday the two others were arrested in East Jaintia Hills on Wednesday.
According to sources, police in West Jaintia Hills have been on alert ever since the arrest of foreign nationals of African origin in East Jaintia Hills district recently after they had crossed over from Bangladesh.
On Wednesday, police received information that unknown foreign nationals were likely to cross over from Bangladesh into the district.
Accordingly, Donkupar Moksha, Deputy Superintendent
of Police (Traffic), led a team to conduct an operation in Amlarem area and on Thursday at around 1 am they apprehended the three Nigerians identified as Chukwuma Celestine Okwuwa (34), Lucky Osas Enebi (36) and
Ndubuisi Moses Chime (28) from Pdengshakap area, about 10 km from Amlarem.
The trio told police that that they had left Lagos, Nigeria on October 6 and reached Istanbul, Turkey on October 7 en route Dhaka where they reached on the morning of October 8.
On the flight from Istanbul, they had met a Nigerian national and together travelled to Dhaka. However, on reaching Dhaka he disappeared.From Dhaka, the three Nigerian nationals were guided to the border by one Bangladeshi person and they proceeded towards a riverside and then entered India.
At the time of entering India they saw a guard at the border but they were not seen by him. Then, they crossed the border through a swampy area. They asked some local people for transportation and while they were travelling, they were intercepted by the police team at Pdengshakap area.
The three were carrying only passports and Bangladeshi visas and they stated that their purpose of visit was to explore the garment business in India.
The local persons who assisted them were identified as Ronaldo Syndai (21) of Syndai Kmaishnong village, Ni Pohleng (20) of Syndai Lyngkot village, Kliar Mon Pohthmi (18) and Rihok Chyrmang (28) of Syndai Kmaishnong village.
Sources revealed that the local persons who helped the foreigners had planned it with some Bangladeshi nationals to help them cross the border. The vehicle (ML05 G 4952) that was used for transportation of the Nigerian nationals was seized and search of the baggage was conducted in presence of a magistrate but nothing incriminating was found.
In this regard, a case was registered at the Amlarem police station under sections 14(a)(c) of the Foreigners Act and the three Nigerian nationals and the four local persons were arrested.
Meanwhile, East Jaintia Hills police too arrested two Nigerian citizens on Wednesday night while they were travelling by a night super bus from Agartala to Guwahati.
The arrest was made by Ratacherra checkpoint staff and they have been identified as Victor Ojichukwu Ugo Okeke and Ifechkwu Emmanuel Obi.
