West Jaintia Hills Police arrested three Nigerian nationals for illegally entering Meghalaya through the porous Indo-Bangla border and 4 locals for assisting them on Thursday.
The arrested Nigerian nationals have been identified as Chukwuma Celestine Okwuwa (34 ), Lucky Osas Enebi (36) and Ndubuisi Moses Chime (28) from Pdengshakap area, about 10 Km from Amlarem.
A case [No. 24(10)2019] has been registered against them at Amlarem police station under section 14(a) (c) of the Foreigners’ Act.
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Four locals have also been arrested by the police for assisting the Nigerians in entering Meghalaya illegally.
They are Ronaldo Syndai (21), son of Krishna Chettri from Syndai Kmaishnong village; Ni Pohleng (20), son of Hom Lynchiang from Syndai Lyngkot village; Kliar Mon Pohthmi (18), son of (late) Nimen Lakuna from Syndai Kmaishnong village and Rihok Chyrmang (28), son of Smto Jelina Chyrmang from Syndai Kmaishnong village.
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Informing this, Lakador Syiem, superintendent of police (DSB), West Jaintia Hills, in a press communiqué said, “Ever since the arrest of foreign nationals of African origin in East Jaintia Hills district, our officers and personnel were alerted about the issue especially the threat of infiltration from Bangladesh through the porous border.”
On Wednesday evening, the police received information that unknown foreign nationals were likely to cross over from Bangladesh into West Jaintia Hills district and based on the source information Donkupar Moksha, deputy SP (Traffic) led a police team to conduct an operation in Amlarem areas.
And on Thursday at around 1 am, the team apprehended the three Nigerian nationals from Pdengshakap area, about 10 kms from Amlarem, the West Jaintia Hills SP said.
The SP said during preliminary enquiry, the 3 Nigerian nationals stated that they left Lagos in Nigeria on October 6, 2019 and reached Istanbul in Turkey on October 7 on transit to Dhaka and reached Dhaka on October 8 morning.
Then while they were on the flight from Istanbul, they met one Nigerian national inside the Istanbul flight and came together to Dhaka.
However, on reaching at Dhaka he went in a separate ways and disappeared in Dhaka.
“From Dhaka, the 3 Nigerian national were guided to the border by one Bangladeshi person and proceeded towards one riverside and then they entered into India.”
At the time of entering into India they saw a guard at the border but they were not seen by him.
Then, they crossed through a swampy area on the border and as they crossed the area they saw some local people and asked from them for their transportation.
While they were travelling, they were intercepted by the police team at Pdengshakap area, about 10 Kms approximately from Amlarem after travelling about 45 minutes from the riverside, the SP said.
“The 3 Nigerian nationals carried only passport and Bangladesh visa with them and they stated that their purpose of coming was to explore garment exports in India,” Syiem said.
The local persons who assisted them have also been arrested and investigation is under way into the matter, he added.
“Sources revealed that the local persons, who helped the foreigners, have planned this activity with some Bangladeshi nationals to help them cross the border,” informed the district police chief.
The vehicle (ML-05G-4952 – Black Chevrolet Spark) that was used for transportation of the Nigerian nationals was also seized and search of the baggage was conducted in presence of the magistrate but nothing incriminating was found, said Syiem.
The arrested Nigerians and locals have been forwarded to the court seeking police custody for further interrogation.