FG ANGRY OVER SHOOTING OF IMMIGRATION OFFICER BY CHINESE BIZMAN

FG ANGRY OVER SHOOTING OF IMMIGRATION OFFICER BY CHINESE BIZMAN

The Federal government has expressed anger over the shooting of an Immigration officer by a Chinese businessman in Minna, Niger state, describing the incident as unacceptable.

The government said it was a slap on the face of Nigeria for such an incident to happen when the Immigration officer was going about his routine duty to demand work permit for staff members of the Chinese company.

“We are going to take this matter up with the Chinese government. An Immigration officer on routine duty visited a Chinese Company, and asked routine questions on work permit only for the Chinese businessman involved to ask his security detail to shoot the Immigration officer, and the security detail did so.

“This is unacceptable. We are going to go tough on that businessman and the Chinese authorities,” the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo stated this in Abuja on Thursday.

The Minister spoke at a stakeholders sensitisation workshop on the implementation of the Nigeria Visa policy (NVP) 2025, at the Continental Hotel, Abuja.

According to Tunji-Ojo, the development alone is an attack on Nigeria, asserting “it will never happen in China for a Nigerian businessman to order the shooting of a Chinese Immigration officer. This will not be tolerated here in Nigeria.”

The Minister said the Immigration officer, who was on official duty, had visited the Chinese company in Minna, Niger state, to check the list of the company’s expatriates, but the owner of the company ordered a security officer in the premises to shoot the government official.

Tunji-Ojo said: “I won’t go to China as a Nigerian, open a company and tell my security to shoot a government official in uniform. It’s never done anywhere in the world.

“These officers put their lives on the line. These officers serve this country with their all. And you will not come from anywhere and ask them to shoot them in their fatherland.

“It will no longer happen. We will take it up with you. Because that company, we (Nigerian government) have the power to withdraw their business in Nigeria and declare them illegal,” Tunji-Ojo said.