Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
Plans are being made to hire 5,000 more people for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), according to acting comptroller-general Idris Jere.
In response to inquiries from reporters yesterday in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State, Jere revealed the information and stated that it was done so to solve the NIS’s shortage of human resources.
As you are also aware, the federal government has imposed a recruitment embargo, although it has been eased in the case of security agencies because security is crucial.
We’ve written to the president, he revealed. I have no doubt that our request to add roughly 5,000 new employees to the immigration service will be approved.
He stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had received a memo from Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, who expressed his willingness to grant the request.
The comptroller-general met two other officers who were injured in the attack while he was in Jigawa to express his condolences to the family of an immigration officer who was killed on August 9 by suspected bandits.
At the NIS base along the Birniwa-Galadi axis in the Birniwa Local Government Area, immigration agents were attacked.
The operatives were on patrol when the bandits opened fire, killing the officer Abdullahi Mohammed. Two more people were wounded by gunfire.
Jere reaffirmed that despite the incident, the immigration agency would continue to work to secure Nigeria’s borders.
For instance, Jigawa’s border with the Niger Republic is around 1,680 kilometers long, making it an extremely difficult area for immigration authorities to patrol. Therefore, technology is the solution to this issue.
Happily, the e-border that will span Maigatari here in Jigawa and other borders across the nation has received federal approval, according to Jere.
“We already have the infrastructure, so cameras and drones will be deployed to adequately patrol the borders, but this requires funding. I want to reassure you that the technology’s deployment will soon begin.
He urged the state government to provide the immigration service with vehicles so that the Maigatari border would be constantly patrolled.
Jere also made an appeal to the state’s more established institutions to assist the service by providing crucial information about ominous movements so that appropriate and prompt action could be taken.
