The Comptroller General (CG) of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has revealed that the total movements across the nation’s borders for the year 2020 stood at 1,579,773.
In press release on Tuesday by the spokesman of the service, Sunday James, said Babandede made this disclosure during a media chat.
Breaking the figures down, the CG enumerated that in 2020, passenger movement across the air borders was 1,256,652, and across the land, borders were 109,854, while the seaport recorded 213,161 and stowaways stood at 106 interceptions.
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He went further to reveal that the service has put in place strategies to effectively strike the nexus between trade and people facilitation, human rights and right of countries to protect its sovereignty and security, economic development and risk to life and prosperity of the nation, ensuring that it maintains an active presence across the land, air and blue borderlines of the country as well as contributing to the internal security of Nigeria through the deployment of personnel to the Joint Task Force in the North-east, the Forward Operating Bases in 14 different locations across the country, 774 Divisional Immigration Offices in the local government areas of the country.
These also include eight zonal offices, 36 state commands and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), newly established special border commands, 114 land border control posts, 72 border patrol bases, six international airports, 11 sea/marine borders patrolling the nation’s 415 nautical miles (853 km), coastal areas and the Gulf of Guinea in the south.
He promised that the Nigeria Immigration Service will continue to play the lead role in border management, migration management and control of human mobility through the deployment of human capital and technology, collaborations for safer migration through bilateral, multilateral cooperation, inter-agency collaborations and partnerships, training and retraining of its workforce to ensure safe border and safe nation.
Babandede described the technological revolution in NIS as a major breakthrough in the intelligence community, stressing that: ‘With a drive towards intelligence sharing and collaboration between the services, we live in an interesting time where technology and communication play a greater role in curbing and fighting the multifaceted criminality and security challenges.’
He said communications technology will continue to redefine world order and systems, especially as it relates to intelligence and security services and ease with which human mobility or migration challenges with existing border security and migration management structures across national border frontiers.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK