The Comptroller General of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has said many illegal immigrants living in Nigeria will soon be deported as the Service is set to commence issuance of residence permits to foreigners in the country.
Disclosing this at the passing out parade of 396 cadets in the 44th Superintendent Basic Course held at the Immigration Training School in Kano, Babandede said NIS will begin the deportation exercise in the next three months.
“With present security challenges facing this nation, the only options left for the service is the issuance of permits for all foreign nationals living in the country as a measure to curtail insecurity issues.
“Therefore, in the next three months, the service will commence issuance of residence permits to foreign nationals residing in Nigeria and anybody who failed to possess his own before the expiration of the stipulated time for the permit issuance faces deportation,” he said.
Babandede said the 44th set is the second to be trained under the newly developed training curriculum drafted by the 30 professors engaged by the service, stressing that the present NIS is an IT-driven service that attached high premium on digitalization.
“The service is gradually conforming with international standard requirement as it is IT-driven; therefore, it is equally very important to state here that the service has obtained presidential approval to establish e-base immigration system where the service will be able to share security information with other security agencies in the nation,” Babandede added.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Barrister Georgina Ehuriah, said it very vital for the cadets to understand that the ministry maintains zero tolerance to misconduct from any personnel adding that the ministry will not hesitate to deal decisively with any reported case of misconduct.