IMMIGRATION UNCOVERS 1,487 ILLEGAL ROUTES TO NIGERIA

Nigeria Immigration Service has uncovered about 1,487 illegal routes to the country.

The NIS also identified 84 regular borders to the country.

The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, stated this on Tuesday in Abuja while responding to questions on the porous nature of the nation’s borders.

The service, he added, had taken steps by patrolling the routes in order to check the illegal movement of people and goods into the country.

Moro said, “Since I assumed office, we have taken deliberate steps in conjunction with National Boundaries Commission to identify our borders and the routes that lead to Nigeria from other countries, and in the process, we have been able to identify 84 regular borders and over 1,487 irregular routes to Nigeria.”

The minister, who said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration was battling with the security challenges facing the nation, noted that the government had taken proactive steps to control the influx of illegal aliens into the country.

He added that plans were underway to use the Public Private Partnership model to demarcate further Nigeria borders post with her neighbouring countries to ensure better border management.

The minister said, “We are contemplating using the Public Private Partnership model to see how we can construct graders around our borders. As it is today,  if you go to many of our land borders, you hardly can define when you are in Nigeria and when you are out of it, and that is because of the lack of physical structure that will separate Nigeria from the other countries.”

Moro promised that within the year, construction work would start at some of the border posts to ensure effective patrols and better border management.

On the influx of aliens into the country,  the Minister said though the problem was not peculiar to Nigeria, the NIS had not relented in its responsibility of ensuring that unauthorised persons were eased out of the country.

Source: Punch