•Immigrations Comptroller General, Caroline Adepoju
As part of measures to check pervading insecurity, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has declared war on legal residents who are providing cover for illegal immigrants across the country.
The service warned that anyone caught harbouring illegal immigrants would be made to face the full weight of the law, insisting that the Nigerian Immigration Act of 2015 has provided the legal framework.
Comptroller of NIS in Delta State, Mr. Emmanuel Akinrinsola gave the warning in Asaba while playing host to the executive members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council led by the chairman, Churchill Oyowe, reports Daily Sun.
Akinrinsola urged residents to report any suspicious foreigner to the NIS, adding that there are divisional officers of the service in every local government area.
“We have divisional immigration officers in all the twenty five local government areas of the state commands. So the issue of saying that I am ignorant of the law, I did not know that this man is from Cotonou, I did not know he is from Niger, it does not arise.
“Once you harbour an illegal immigrant, the cost of that repatriation is going to be borne by whosoever harbours the illegal foreigner. So, it is a punishable offence under our law for you to harbour someone you do not know,” he said.
Akinrinsola said the meeting with the leadership of NUJ provided an avenue to promote synergy between NIS and journalists, even as he seized the opportunity to throw more light on on going reforms in the service.
“Our passport system in Nigeria has been automated for close to decades now. But recently in the last few months, the top echelon of the NIS led by the Comptroller General, Mrs. Caroline Adepoju thought it wise to deepen the automation.
“In the area of passport, it is the goal of the service to have a seamless passport production and adherence to timeline.
“Now, the Comptroller General has approved that the applicant will be the one to upload his or her bio-data including bright picture with eyes open, mouth closed, facing the camera straight at the comfort of his or her room, and send through correct personal email with phone numbers to NIS before appearing physically,” he explained.
On re-issuance of passport or renewal, the Akinrinsola said all re-issuing applicants must present their current passports for verification and approval.
He explained that the new automated procedure would reduce the time spent with the immigration officer in processing passports.
Comptroller Akinrinsola hinted that the NIS was currently working on the modalities for change of data, assuring that it will commence soon.
He said as a para-military agency, NIS will continue to contribute to internal security through collaboration with other security agencies.
“One of the ways we do this is raiding hideouts of illegal immigrants, with support from state governments, and repatriate them.
“Also with relation to expatriates companies, I am going to ensure that we enforce quota regulation in employment which mandates that they must employ Nigerian understudies when foreigners are occupying positions,” he pledged.
Chairman of NUJ in the state, Mr. Oyowe had commended the reforms in NIS in the area of digitisation of passport processing, and expressed the hope that passport applicants would provide the right information.
Comrade Oyowe urged the service to intensify efforts in regularly raiding hot spots to fish out illegal immigrants, even as he emphasised the need for collaboration with sister agencies such as the Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for proper profiling of foreigners to help check criminal rate in the state.
