“They threatened to shoot me”, Activist Amina Saulawa narrates encounter with Nigerian immigration officers at border
A recent encounter between activist Amina Isiyaku Saulawa and Nigerian Immigration officers along the Kano-Daura highway has stirred public attention, after a live video of the incident circulated online.
The clash reportedly took place near the Fago axis, where immigration officers routinely monitor cross-border movement.
According to accounts gathered from social media pages and her own testimony in a video obtained by Neptune Prime, Amina was travelling in a commercial vehicle when officers stopped them to question passengers. Two men from Niger Republic admitted they were foreigners and were asked to pay an additional fee to continue their journey, however, no identification was requested from them.
Amina recounted that the officers soon turned their attention to her. “He asked me to step out of the car and demanded my ID. I showed him my National Identity Card, but he said it wasn’t about the card and insisted that I go and meet his boss. I refused, because I knew I had done nothing wrong and had already shown proof of my citizenship,” she explained in an interview.
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Matters escalated when another officer allegedly threatened her. “One of them insulted me, saying a northerner has no rights, and even boasted that if given a gun, he would shoot me.” Amina recalled.
By this time, she had begun livestreaming the confrontation. The video, added above, shows her refusing to leave the vehicle as she complains about the officer.
She further remarked that the officers suggested dropping her luggage and letting the vehicle continue without her, but Amina resisted. She reminded them that as a paying passenger, the driver had a duty to ensure she reached Daura safely.
Eventually, one of the immigration officers boarded their vehicle and ordered the driver to proceed to the border headquarters at Kwangwalan. By then, Amina’s livestream had gained traction, with calls reportedly reaching senior immigration officials while she was still en route.
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At the headquarters, she said, the tone changed. The officer accused of making abusive remarks was confronted by his superiors. Both the checkpoint commander and their head at Kwangwalan apologised to her, assuring that disciplinary measures would be taken against those responsible.
The incident has since sparked conversations about corruption, intimidation, and misconduct among security operatives at Nigeria’s borders. Many Nigerians who followed Amina’s livestream expressed outrage at the treatment she received despite presenting her National ID, while some were cautious of her livestreaming as a dangerous act that could compromise the location of the officers and might put their work in danger.
In her closing remarks, Amina called on government authorities to urgently tackle corruption within security agencies. She also stressed the power of technology in defending citizens, urging Nigerians to use their devices to capture evidence whenever confronted with abuse by officials. “If I wasn’t recording, I don’t know how far it would have gone,” she said.
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