TheCable

The Nigerian government is yet to make an official statement 48 hours after German authorities allegedly deported an ISIS suspect to the country.

The suspect was among 50 other persons that were deported from eight European countries – Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Hungary – to Nigeria last Thursday.

Calls to the telephone of Clement Aduku, spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs, were unanswered, just as an SMS to him was not replied to.

However,  Sunday James, spokesman of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), told TheCable that no German ISIS suspect was deported to the country.

He said he contacted his colleagues at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, when the news broke, but they told him that no ISIS suspect was deported from Germany.

TheCable could not reach the Department of State Services (DSS) because the agency has no established line of communication.

According to dpa, a German news agency, the deportee, a 22-year-old man, was born in Germany.

He was arrested alongside his partner, a 27 year-old Algerian, during investigation of planned attacks in February.

Prior to his arrest, he and his partner lived with their parents in Göttingen, a German city.

When the two men were picked up, investigators found two weapons, at least one of them a firearm that had been altered to fire live ammunition.

Also found were ammunition, flags of the Islamic State group and a machete.

The man deported to Nigeria has been banned from entering Germany for life.

ISIS is an organisation that has claimed responsibility for several attacks in Europe and the Middle East.