FG discovers 1,497 illegal routes to Nigeria

1,497 irregular routes often used by illegal immigrants to gain entry into the country have been identified by the federal government. Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, who disclosed this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday said the federal government is concerned about the nation’s porous borders, especially when some of the illegal immigrants have been allegedly playing active roles in the security challenges facing the country. According to him, “there is no doubt that in any country, foreigners come in. There is no exception to that but when criminally-minded foreigners come into the country with legitimate papers, without proper travel documents…more so, when these foreigners are alleged to be part of insecurity by participating in suicide bombings and some of the conflicts that we have on our hands, certainly it is a serious concern for Nigeria.” The minister said the Federal Government has started to increase attention to addressing the border porosity. He added that the government would introduce electronic components to the surveillance of the Nigerian borders with a central post in Abuja or any part of the country. On the issue of capturing the biometric data of all persons entering and leaving the country, the minister said, “we are presently partnering with Galaxy Backbone, it is the major platform for capturing this data and of course the national identity commission is in an aggressive move to ensure we have adequate data record of all persons that enter and leave Jos and all persons including Nigerians resident in Nigeria. We will get there soon.”