Why immigration still battles with porous borders, by NIS boss

The Controller-General of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammed Babandede, has affirmed that porous borders on the nation’s territory still remain a major challenge bedeviling the success of the S.

He lamented the inability of Immigration to render maximum control of the 140 recognised land borders in the country.

Babandede, who spoke in Kano at the weekend while inaugurating a building structure donated by Bristow Helicopters Nigeria Limited, said the Service requires basic technology to efficiently manage the borders against in-road of unwanted elements.

He applauded Federal Government’s approval of the construction of immigration technology centre, which he believed when completed, would afford the Service technological strength to maximise surveillance across the land borders.

“There is no country or institution without challenge. Our major challenge at the Immigration presently is the inability to control the 140 borders in the country. We still have unsecured borders and this administration is trying to manage that.
The borders are so porous and we need to have more border patrol bases and posts and again, enough border patrol vehicles to monitor all border axis.

“And like I always say, you cannot manage the borders in this 21 Century using 20 Century’s technology. So, we need modern day technology to enable us deploy comprehensive surveillance of all the border points. All of these require heavy investment and I make bold to say this administration in the last two years had invested a lot of resources on Immigration management and we believe if this gesture is sustained, smuggling and other criminality would become a thing of the past soonest,” he said.

He also lauded the gesture of Bristol Helicopters, assuring the firm of efficient management of the facilities.

However, Managing Director, Bristow Helicopters Nigeria Limited, Mr. Dapo Oyeleke, said the gesture was part of the company’s corporate social responsibility targeted at building human capacity.

He said that such facilities would be replicated across Nigerian Immigration training schools.