The Federal Government has announced plans to launch a Command and Control Centre dedicated to curbing irregular migration into Nigeria.
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this during the induction ceremony for operational officers of the Command and Control Centre for Regular Migration on Monday in Abuja. He explained that this new centre will enhance border security efforts by monitoring both land and marine entry points.
“What we are doing today is the regular migration command and control centre,” Dr. Tunji-Ojo said. “Very soon, we will come up with the irregular migration command and control centre.”
He stressed that the government would go beyond monitoring airports, ensuring all entry points are equipped to pre-profile individuals coming into the country. “Very soon, the president will be commissioning the e-gates in our international airports,” he added.
Highlighting the importance of precise and vigilant screening, Tunji-Ojo stated, “This is a scheme where there is no margin of error, where you cannot do guesswork, where you have to be mentally alert and ready to sacrifice for the sake of the fatherland. Security must be 100 per cent accurate and not 99.9 per cent, because the 0.1 per cent inaccuracy can destroy the 99 per cent.”
He assured that the centre would have a continuous power supply to prevent any operational downtime, emphasizing, “With the infrastructure in the command and control centre, it means that nobody—not a single person—should be able to come into Nigeria without us pre-profiling them. The government has equipped you to do objective screening and no longer subjective screening.”
In her remarks, Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, announced that 123 officers and men had successfully completed rigorous foundational training and would be stationed at the centre to fulfill its mandate.
