The Nigerian Senate has raised the alarm over what it describes as a proliferation of foreign prisoners in the country who are smuggled in to work at major construction sites.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who disclosed this on Wednesday, called on the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to pay more attention to the issue of “illegal expatriates” being smuggled into the country.
While addressing the minister, who was in the Upper Legislative Chamber to defend the Ministry’s 2024 budget estimates, Oshiomhole alleged that such illegal expatriates, including those committed to prisons in their various countries, were currently in Nigeria working at construction sites.
“Many non-Nigerians are in the country, some of them live inside containers. I even believe and dare say it that there are foreign prisoners who are working in Nigeria. They were shipped to our country to serve their prison terms,” the senator stated.
“They were being paid according to their country’s minimum wage by the construction industry that brought them. I don’t want to mention the company’s name but if I am provoked, I will mention them.
“Honourable Minister, this is a serious issue; prisoners are not expected to work in their countries if the product or whatever they engage in is meant to be exported.
“In this country today, there are prisoners, they live in containers and they are more from a particular country”, he added.
The senator, who made a veiled reference to countries that Nigeria was indebted to, went further to add:
“Even if their home country borrow us money, they should not take away our sovereignty and they must not distort our commitment to creating jobs at home.
“There are many who come here as tourists. They don’t have work permit and they are working completely illegally while Nigerians are being harassed in their country.
“The Minister has a huge task. Nigerians must be working. They are attending political rallies in their hundreds because they are idle”.