Immigration blocks 14 ‘Persons of Interest’ from entering into Nigeria

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo

Immigration blocks 14 ‘Persons of Interest’ from entering into Nigeria

The Nigeria Immigration Service NIS has blocked about 14 persons of interest who had been flagged internationally, and prevented them from entering into the country.

Interior minister, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo disclosed this on Friday at the Service’s headquarters in Abuja when he unveiled the NIS Career Progression and Training Policy Framework CPTF and Gender Mainstreaming Policy.

Both documents deal with career plan, e-learning and gender mainstreaming.

The framework was sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development ICMPD under the Modernizing Nigeria Immigration Service MoNIS project.

The minister who commended the Comptroller General of Immigration Service CGIS, Kemi Nandap, for leading the service to greater heights, said the state must always be ahead of criminals in order to avoid anarchy.

While he did not give details of the 14 persons who were nabbed, the minister said the feat was made possible through the recently launched Advanced Passenger Information API system.

He said; ” The state must be ahead of criminals, not behind. Otherwise there will be anarchy.

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“Today, if you go to the Command and Control Centre you will see what is happening. The people who are working there are doing shifts of 8 hours each day and they are NIS personnel. No external hands. They have been doing a fantastic job. Just yesterday, I got a report about some persons of interest that were nabbed. About 14 of them. Weeks ago, these people would have just entered quietly into Nigeria without us knowing but today because we have the Advanced Passenger Information API system, we can view people’s records, pre-profile them before they come. In a space of two days, about six or such persons were prevented from coming in and these are people flagged internationally. The new NIS is business unusual.

“Finally we are beginning to institutionalize change as I believe in long-term solutions to long term problems. Irregular migration is a long-term problem. MoNIS is not an option but a necessity”.