 The Nigeria Immigration Service and IS BIOSA State Command has revealed that about 644 irregular immigrants were arrested in the state in the recent exercise to rid her of foreigners who are yet to regularize their documents. Controller of the command, Sandy James, made a disclosure while addressing journalists at the end of the exercise. Our correspondent, Jesse Essay, has details. The NIS began the clampdown on irregular immigrants on September 9 with support from sister security agencies. The operation was in line with the directive of the Controller General of NIS, Isai Dris, that all who are yet to regularize their papers be fished out in response to the growing incidences of crime across the country. In BIOSA State, the command was able to comb areas known to harbor such foreigners. The areas we covered include Aritalin, Swali, Onopah, Azikoro, Okaka, Biasapam, Obogoro, Obele Street, Oto-Otio, Biaspress, Beogulo, Tombia, Fangbe, and Ugu Village. And the purpose of this operation is not targeted at any specific tribe or religion. And that was why when the Hasa community at Aritalin were trying to be very apprehensive how to go and address them to tell them that this operation was not targeted at specific tribe or religion. We were mandated to check our neighbors that came in to confirm those who have valid papers they can recite. But also don't have at all, we have to remove them. The NIS bus listed the nationality of those apprehended and maintained that the operation was carried out bearing in mind the provisions of the 1975 Ekowa Street. On day 1 we had 289, on day 2 we had 113, on day 3 we had 90, on day 4 we had 58, and on the 5th day which was 19 we had 94 making it 644 and then when we sorted them out based on nationality we have Nigerians 44, Togolis 35, Beninuas 20, Ghanian 6 and Malian 1 making a total of 106. The reason why we didn't put them in detention is because most of them are not criminals. These are just individuals that abuse immigration regulation and by virtue of what we do in immigration we don't have a detention center, we only have a screening center. If you see anybody being detained is made by a superior order that such an individual must have committed a crime. The command also enjoined citizens not to harbour anyone who is yet to validate their papers but report them to the appropriate quarters for necessary action. Just CSA for Plus TV News. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.