How firm and immigration staff fight over Chinese workers

Managing Director of Loc Metals and Minerals Limited, Chief Loretta Ngozi Aniagolu, who made this assertion, said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration must ensure that those working for the government are monitored to prevent them from scuttling the government’s transformation agenda. Aniagolu was reacting to alleged ‘invasion’ of her company’s mine site at Ivo in […]

Managing Director of Loc Metals and Minerals Limited, Chief Loretta Ngozi Aniagolu, who made this assertion, said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration must ensure that those working for the government are monitored to prevent them from scuttling the government’s transformation agenda.

Aniagolu was reacting to alleged ‘invasion’ of her company’s mine site at Ivo in Ishiagu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Services in the state’s command, during which the company’s foreman, Mr Muhammad Arabor, 35, was allegedly injured by an immigration official. Arabor was hospitalised for some days as a result of a “deep cut in his head”, our reporter, who visited the hospital, was told.

She said it was wrong of the immigration officials in Ebonyi State to have forcefully invaded the place in search of the company’s expatriate workers who, she said, had all their vital documents before entering the country.

“The Chinese working with us have all their necessary papers, and I wonder why the immigration officials in Ebonyi State still insisted that the Chinese must obtain other papers from their own office after they had registered in Enugu and also obtained a covering document from the office of the Comptroller General of Immigration,” she said.

The victim of the said ‘invasion’, Arabor, who hails from Madagali local Government Area of Adamawa State, recalled that trouble began last month when four immigration officials from Abakaliki, led by one female officer simply identified as Miss Stella, stormed the company’s mine site at Ivo, Ishiagu council area of the state. The officials demanded that the Chinese men working for Loc Metals and Minerals Limited be handed over to them. The intention, according to Arabor, was for the immigration officials to drag them to their office and detain them.

Sensing danger, the company’s geologist, Mr Chris Obi, ordered the company to shut down operation to prevent a violent showdown with the armed officials that arrived at the site.

“On the 28th of November, 2012, a team of immigration officials, led by one Miss Stella came to our mine site at Ishiagu and requested to see the papers of the Chinese doing installation and training for Loc Metals and Minerals Ltd. I presented to them the approved work permit that was duly signed by the Comptroller General of Immigration in Nigeria. They went further and asked for their visa and passports; I showed them the photocopies of the documents that were at my disposal. And from the photocopies, it was clear that their visa was still valid,” Obi told Sunday Trust.

He said he refused to release the Chinese to them because the company imposed a restriction on their movement, especially these days the country was witnessing an upsurge in cases of kidnapping. As soon as the four immigration officials went back to their office for “armed mobilisation”, Obi said, he quickly drove the Chinese to their Enugu residence.

Arriving at the site and realising that their targets – the Chinese – were nowhere to be seen, Obi alleged, the immigration officials began to attack everyone at their sight.

Arabor, who eventually became a victim, said: “They started to chase everybody and we just dispersed and everybody went to his place. So on the way coming back to my house, we didn’t realise that one of the immigration officers hid himself somewhere inside the bush along the road.

“As me and one of my brothers, Abdullahi, were coming back, and as we walked to the point where he laid ambush, he just appeared from bush, and before we noticed it, he had come near us, carrying a long stick. As we turned and said ‘wetin de happen’, he (immigration officer) said that we are criminals, that we are the ones hiding our manager and the Chinese people.

“So from there, we ran to different direction again. But the officer gave me a hot chase and hit me with stick on the head. This thing happened around 3pm that same day. He was wearing immigration uniform. As he hit my head with the stick, I just fell down there. He come stop on top of me de shout, saying na we be the criminals. I said ‘after you don wound me, you are calling me criminal’.

“He started abusing me, and later abandoned me. I managed to move to another place and sat down as blood was gushing out from my wound,” Arabor told Sunday Trust as he touched the bandage wrapped to cover the wound.

He recalled that soon after inflicting the heavy injury on him, the immigration official called his men who quickly drove to the spot and he joined them in their vehicle as they drove off. Arabor ended up in hospital.

When the immigration officials were done with Arabor, they were said to have abandoned him in a pool of his blood. Later, they went back to the mine site and arrested two of the company’s civil security men, Mr Dalhatu Aliyu, an indigene of Madagali Local Government Area, and Mr Kabiru Salisu, who comes from Kanam council area of Plateau State. The immigration officials reportedly accused them of not being Nigerians.

“The security men had their passports and even valid voters ID card and presented them as a proof that they are Nigerians but the immigration insisted that they were going to drag them to their office; that they were not satisfied with the national identity cards that were presented to them,” Obi narrated.

On his part, the Chief Medical Director of Nyeche Calvary Hospital, Ivo, Ishiagu area of Ebonyi State, Dr Bright Owhorji, who treated Arabor, said he was shocked when he heard that immigration officials were fingered in Arabor’s injury.

According to him, Arabor “was in a pool of blood. It was not a good scene; I didn’t believe him when he said he was beaten by immigration officers. I thought something was wrong. But it was when we got the full gist of what happened that it was actually immigration officers who came and got him beaten up; we were not happy with that. Well, we’re doctors, and we’ve done our work as doctors.”

A medical report signed by the Divisional Police Officer, Ivo Division, dated November 29, 2012 and made available to Sunday Trust said: “Patient reported with a deep cut on the scalp. Wound was stitched. He received infusion due to blood loss and antibiotics. His condition was stabilized and he was discharged after two days; to return day 7 for removal of stitches.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in Ebonyi State, Mr Sylvester Igbo, confirmed the incident to our reporter, but said he was still studying the case, as at the time of filing in this report.

“The papers concerning the case have been brought to my table but for the meeting I am attending now, I would have studied the report; in fact, I am yet to study the papers. And I will do that as soon as I come out of the meeting,” he said.

However, the Comptroller of Immigration in Ebonyi State, Mr Abin, denied the allegations. He said his officials did not attack the staff of Loc Metals and Minerals Ltd., nor did they inflict injury on any one.

He accused the managing director of the company and the staff of shutting the gate against the immigration officials who were performing their statutory duty. The comptroller alleged that Arabor got the injury as he and others were running inside the bush as they “smuggled” the Chinese out of the company through the bush.

He said: “That day was the fourth time we visited that company. We had made three other attempts which were vehemently resisted. The staff there refused to grant us entry into the company. They now started using the police; and we now saw the commissioner of police, who directed his men to allow us to carry out our monitoring duty. So on that day my officers were there. And again the gate was closed against them; that they shouldn’t enter; that the owner of the company, one Ms Loretta Aniagolu directed that no immigration officer should ever have access to the expatriate staff, Chinese to be precise.

“You may have been aware that there is an influx of Chinese in the country now. If they come in to work, there’s a particular visa that they should apply for and obtain before coming. But some Nigerians are not aware of this; they just engage them. When we meet them, we now advise the owners of the company that this is the visa these people should have used to enter here. But this woman did not allow us to have access to the Chinese, and we believe that they are working with the wrong papers. She said she would not have any dealing with the Ebonyi State immigration, but the company is located in Ebonyi State,” he said.

“And she even reported me to our Comptroller General; and we are only carrying out our statutory function. She didn’t allow us access to that place; they started fighting our workers. They blocked the gate and opened behind (the backdoor) for the Chinese people to escape. It was in the process of taking the Chinese through the bush, that one of them might have got injured. It was Loretta Aniagolu who sent me a text claiming that somebody’s head is broken; I’m not aware of that. There were two security men we suspected to be no Nigerians; we brought them here; we discovered they were Nigerians; we let them off; they went back.

“If the Chinese have correct papers, why shouldn’t they allow immigration officials to see them? The Loc Metals and Minerals is not the only company operating in Ebonyi; we didn’t target the company of Loretta Aniagolu; it is our duty to monitor all expatriates working and residing within Ebonyi State. We begged this woman to bring the records of this company to our office so we can have the record. Let’s have the immigration records for the Chinese that are working for her but she refused. She vowed that she would have nothing to do with Ebonyi immigration,” he added.