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COMPTROLLER GENRAL OF IMMIGRATION GIVES ASSURANCE ON SMOOTH IMPLEMENTATION OF ECOWAS PROTOCOL ON FREE MOVEMENT.

The Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Chukwurah Udeh OFR has said that his Service is poised to address the issue of porosity of Nigeria’s borders. He said further that it is not enough to admit that “our borders are porous” but do little to improve the situation. Consequently, the Nigeria Immigration Service has proffered a solution which will lead to the building of structured entry points or autogates at the nation’s borders as a measure to control migration. This, will be in addition to the joint border patrol involving Immigration, Customs and the Police that was inaugurated by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2005.

He made this known on a Nigerian Television Authority Network Programme Tuesday Nite Live on the 6th June, 2006 while assessing 30 years of the existence of the Economic Community of West Africa State (ECOWAS)

Furthermore, according to the Comptroller General, the NIS sought and got the approval of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR, President and Commander-In-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to host a conference of all Heads of Immigration Agencies in the West African sub-region sometime in August, 2006 with the objective to discuss issues bothering on security in the sub-region, human trafficking, child labour, ECOWAS Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment.

Mr. Chukwurah Udeh OFR also said that one of the panaceas to reduce corruption at our borders as well as ensure the smooth implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on free movement of persons, is to insist that only government agencies that are statutorily mandated by the Nigerian constitution and by international convention are posted to the borders.

The CG of Immigration and his counterpart in the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Gyang Buba agreed further that the proliferation of security agencies and checkpoints only serve the corrupt tendencies of the operatives of these agencies, as cases that fall within their purview can always be referred to them as it is done in other countries.

It is note worthy that the Nigeria Immigration Service has carried out series of reforms since January 2005 aimed at bringing the operations of the Service in line with modern migration management.