- Interior Minister says only 48 Nigerians were repatriated from UK
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has generated N24.3 billion between January and October this year from the issuance of passports and visas, it was learnt yesterday.
Comptroller General (CG) of NIS, Martin Kure Abeshi, disclosed this in Abuja while briefing the Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, on the activities and operations of the service.
Giving the breakdown of the revenue, Abeshi said: “A total of N19, 465, 171, 293. 57 was generated locally while N4, 857, 516, 293 ($24, 657, 443) was generated collectively abroad as revenue generated between January 1st 2015 and October 31st 2015.
“The NIS currently has a total of 29 ongoing projects, including construction of state command headquarters, divisional officers, border control post, Armory and other facilities spread across our formations.”
On the challenges facing the NIS, Abeshi expressed sadness over poor funding, especially for capital projects, construction of border control plazas and automation of control posts.
He added: “Over the years, the NIS has also been contending with inadequate manpower for effective manning of formations and platforms nationwide, lack of adequate officers’ accommodation and basic facilities for border patrol officers, flagrant violation of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons by ECOWAS nationals
“Improper delineation of borderline encourages unfriendly disposition of border communities to border enforcement officers.”
Abeshi recommended to government the recruitment of “at least 5000 new officers and men annually into the service for the next five years to ameliorate our perennial challenges of inadequate manpower.”
Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, warned the officers and men of the NIS to take the issue of border patrol seriously to avoid further smuggling of arms and ammunition into the country.
He also advised them to shun corruption, adding that the government of President Muhhammadu Buhari would not spare anyone caught involved in corrupt practices.
On the issue of the repatriated Nigerians from the United Kingdom (UK), the minister cleared the air, saying that only 48 Nigerians were repatriated.
His words: “I got to read about these issues of repatriated Nigerians from the UK last Wednesday. Immediately I saw that, I alerted the Controller General of Immigration because I had to find out the fact of the report.
“And from my investigation so far, they are about 48 Nigerians that were repatriated. I understand that this issue has been on in the last 18 months. It is not a new issue and I understand that the British government and Nigeria through the Foreign Affairs high commission and of course the Immigration have been in contact on this matter for some time, to the extent that the Immigration sent some of its officers to UK on this issue.
“But I have asked the Comptroller General of immigration this afternoon to give me detailed report.
“The reason for the repatriation, from the brief we got from the airport, is that any expatriate who overstays, he or she pays a fine.
“I raised an observation myself that I think they should look at the issue again. Somebody can come here and he overstays for three months and within those three months you could do all kinds of things.
“It may be legal or not, but he gets the most out of it. When he comes to the airport, he can pay the fine.
“Inasmuch as we would want to encourage people to come here, moving in and out of the country should not be accompanied by unnecessary hardship.
“And as much as possible too, we want a situation whereby the rules and regulations are adhered to. Our security is a priority.”
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