The Nigeria Immigration Service has seized 106 Permanent Voter Cards from foreigners residing in Kwara State.
The Comptroller, NIS, Aminu Shamsuddin, revealed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday.
Shamsuddin said that some foreigners were caught in possession of Nigeria PVCs during the regular patrol by immigration officers within Ilorin metropolis.
He said that NIS had sensitised all foreigners on the rules and regulations surrounding the election and invited them to educate them on the punishment that awaits violators.
He said: “During one of the sensitisation talks, the foreigners were scared to hear that anybody caught participating in anyway during Nigeria elections would be jailed, repatriated and blacklisted.
“Some of the foreigners who had Nigeria PVCs willingly dropped their cards and travelled back to their various countries to return after the whole election exercise.
“Most of the people involved in the act were youths, both males and females, from Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Ghana.
“They claimed that their landlords in their various residents encouraged them to get the PVCs and vote during election so as to increase the number of votes for their various candidates.”
The Comptroller warned that any foreigner caught in possession of PVC would be jailed, repatriated and blacklisted, meaning that such persons will not be allowed into Nigeria again.
NAN reports that the NIS had invited all the citizens of ECOWAS countries, that is Africans settling in Ilorin, and sensitised them on the dos and don’ts of foreigners, which made the seizure easier and effective.
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