The murtala Muhammad International Airport Lagos command of the Nigeria Immigration Service NIS have received nine Nigerians stowaways who attempted to seek for greener pastures in Europe through Gambia.
The stowaways whose age range from 21 to 30years disclosed that they were lured to travel abroad by some friends and decided to travel to Europe through the Gambia sea.
Comptroller NIS Adeola Adesokan who recieved the returnees from officials of Gambia Immigration Service lamented that despite the terrible incident associated with stowaway, some Nigerians still attempt to travel through illegal means
Adesokan disclosed that”Abiut nine Nigerians were sent back from the Gambian Immigration officers for attempted stowaway in the High Sea and two of them almost lost their lives in the process because when they were discovered, they attempted to escape and jumped into the high sea, unfortunately for them , two of them could not swim ”
She further disclosed that the timely intervention of the captain of the ship they were using as escape means had to call for rescue mission and they were able to rescue them, put them in a boat and took them to hotel where they were cared for.
Adesokan stressed that after being rescued the stowaways were very resistant and refused to return Nigeria, as they were demanding money from Immigration Service in Gambia before they could return to Nigeria.
They were however taken to the Nigeria high commission in Gambia who persuaded them and issued them emergency travel documents for them to be able to be brought back to Nigeria through the murtala Muhammad International Airport Lagos.
Some of the stowaways stated that they paid certain amount of money to agents who boarded them on the ship at the Tin Can lsland port in lagos.
