FG to verify identity of Nigerian ISIS suspects

The federal government has communicated with the Indian authorities to ascertain the true identities of two youths who were recently arrested in that country on suspicion that they are Nigerians trying to join the ISIS terrorist group.
The Nigerian embassy in Delhi, India, has written to that country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see the two Nigerians and ascertain their claims of being Nigerians.
Spokesman, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, confirmed that the Nigerian embassy officials had applied to see the suspects to “ascertain their claim of Nigerian nationality.”
“Our embassy in India has applied for consular access to see the boys so that we can ascertain their claim of Nigerian nationality,” he said.
The two youths from Kano, identified as Imran Kabeer and Sani Jamiliu, are currently being detained by the Punjab Police in India.
The India police had arrested the two youths on suspicions that they were on their way to join ISIS and that they attempted to enter Pakistan without valid travel documents.
The suspects, who live in New Delhi, came to India on student visas about a year ago. While Imran is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Karnataka State Open University, Sani is a Bachelor of Science student of the Kerala-based Mahatma Gandhi University
In a related development, there are suspicions that the Lebanese ISIS terrorist, Ahmed Al Assir, could have forged the Nigerian visa in order to visit the country.

Read also: Two Nigerians arrested on way to join ISIS

A diplomatic report sighted on Wednesday, indicated that Assir did not apply to the Nigerian embassy in Lebanon for visa and that he must have forged the document.
It said there was no record anywhere that indicated that the terrorist applied for the Nigerian visa.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday reportedly ordered an investigation into how the Lebanese got the Nigerian visa found in his passport.
The terrorist, who had been on the wanted list of Lebanese security forces, was arrested at the airport last Saturday while attempting to visit Cairo, Egypt, en route to Nigeria on a forged Palestinian passport.
The diplomatic report explained that Assir, who was of Palestinian extraction, had undergone surgery to alter his appearance so as to evade detection by security operatives.
He was accused of involvement in the death of 17 Lebanese soldiers and had been sentenced to death by the court in 2013.
The document further stated that the wanted terrorist had been using different aliases to evade arrest and that his current pseudonym was not on the watch list of the Lebanese security forces.

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