Non-indigenes entering Ogun will have to undergo security clearance amid widespread violent attacks rocking the country.

Governor Dapo Abiodun disclosed this to journalists in Iperu Remo, on Monday, after a special meeting with security chiefs and heads of security agencies, including the army, police, State Security Service, Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps, and the South-West Security Network otherwise known as Amotekun, to prevent violent attacks and mass kidnappings.

According to Mr Abiodun, his administration will “leave no stone unturned” to prevent infiltration by migrating and resident criminal elements, as well as ensure the safeguard of lives and property in the state, against the rising killings, kidnappings, and other terrorist activists ravaging parts of the country.

Mr Abiodun added, “Being an industrial capital with many people coming from different parts of the world to set up companies here, we discovered that some workers in these companies are not documented, and we have resolved that all those who have come to make the state their home, all these foreign nationals, are documented.

“This will be done in partnership with the law enforcement agencies, the police, and immigration. We are doing this to ensure that when there are issues, we can beat our chest and say yes, these ones are here legally in the country and known to us in the state. We have resolved to register any non-indigene that comes into our state so we know who they are, why they are here, and what they are doing.”

The governor disclosed that the law enforcement agencies arrested, “within the last three to four days, about 70 persons from Chad and Sudan who cannot even speak English and cannot explain what they are doing here”.

“We are going to process these individuals with the Nigeria Immigration Service,” said Mr Abiodun. “We will also be calling on our non-indigene communities to be more vigilant so that we know who is here and why they are here.”

The governor, while ordering the seizure of properties in Zanga in Ijebu-Ode and other enclaves, also directed the police to clear out criminal elements who use abandoned properties as hideouts.

Mr Abiodun, who also warned traditional rulers against allocating government land to strangers, stated that forest reserves in the state would be thoroughly secured through the deployment of more and better-equipped security personnel, hunters, and local vigilante groups to prevent criminals from using them as hideouts.