Deportee assaulted immigration officers, not the other way round – NIS claims

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has reacted to a viral video of its officers allegedly assaulting a returnee from abroad at the airport.

Many unconfirmed reports said the officials proceeded to assault the victim over his refusal to part with money for bribe. The NIS says the reports are lies.

The organisation identified the victim as Tony Lucky, a Nigerian citizen it said was deported from Italy.

It said Lucky had in fact been the one who refused to provide full details about his identity and assaulted the officers as he was being grilled after he landed at the airport on December 14.

“In the course of immigration profiling, he became violent insisting that he has no reason to be asked questions about his details,” NAN quotes a NIS official as saying.

“In the process, he landed a punch on one of our officers ACII D. Mamman, which led to bleeding. He virtually assaulted everyone that came his way. It was a difficult task before we were able to take him to the duty room.”

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The official said Lucky later apologized for his behaviour but did not disclose if he would be charged for assault.

He insisted that the officials were only going about their duty of profiling anyone deported to Nigeria, and that the video making rounds on social media where it seemed as if the deportee was rough-handled does not tell the full story.