Nigeria’s porous borders a threat to national security, says Abeshi 

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has disclosed that there over 1,400 illegal border routes into the country.

The Comptroller General of the Service, Mr. Martin Kure Abeshi, who made the disclosure while addressing the 2016 Comptroller General Annual Conference and Stakeholders Interactive Forum in Lafia, Nasarawa State on Thursday, noted that the development has grave security implications for the country.

“Whereas we have 114 approved control posts across the land borders with over 4,000 square kilometers coverage, there are over 1,400 illegal routes which are not manned. This has grave security implications for the country,” Abeshi said.

He highlighted the challenges facing the agency to include inadequate funding and personnel, noting that the current number of immigration officers were grossly inadequate to carry out the Service’s mandate.

“The NIS presently has a total of less than 23,000 staff. The enormous statutory obligations of the NIS coupled with emerging migration trends and trajectories make this number of personnel obviously grossly inadequate,” Abeshi said.