FG to establish command, control centre to combat irregular migration

By Ukpono Ukpono

The Federal Government has announced plans to establish a Command and Control Centre to address irregular migration into Nigeria.

The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, gave the hint during the induction of operational officers for the Command and Control Centre for Regular Migration in Abuja.

“Nigeria is at the centre of migration management within the subregion. Nigeria does not have the luxury that some other countries have, because of our geographical location. We are in the Sahel region and the Gulf of Guinea. The tendency for migration towards Nigeria from the sahelian states is there.

“What we are doing today is the regular migration command and control centre. Very soon, we will come up with the irregular migration command and control centre. We won’t just rely on our airports but ensure that our land and marine borders, anybody coming in, is pre-profiled. Very soon the president will be commissioning the e-gates in our international airports.

“This is a scheme where there is no margin of error, where you cannot do guess work, where you have to be mentally alert and ready to sacrifice for the sake of the fatherland. Security must be 100 percent accurate and not 99.9 percent because the 0.1 percent inaccuracy can destroy the 99 percent. Therefore, we are providing round the clock power supply because we cannot afford to have a downtime.

“Finally, NIS is beginning to give meaning to its name, in that it has gone beyond just a travel document processing agency but a critical organ in terms of our national security architecture.

“The national call to duty doesn’t come bigger than this. A lot depends on you. The ability of Nigerians to sleep with their two eyes closed depends on you.

“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 him. The government has equipped you to do objective screening and no longer subjective screening,” he stated.

The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, also addressed the induction, noting that 123 officers and personnel who passed intensive fundamental training were selected for the centre.

“We had a total of 253 who took part in the initial training but these are the ones who scaled through the first phase after the examination and screening. They will be going to the next phase which is specialized training in data analysis and travel plan analysis.

“The Advanced Passenger Information/Passenger Name Record API/PNR will enable us to pull data from different sources and an analysis of these data will help us to understand how they escalate issues, how they fuel threats etc. We will ensure that only trained personnel are posted to this unit,” she said.

Dr. MC Dike, Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Border Management, highlighted the centre’s capabilities, emphasizing the role of API/PNR in modern border management for identifying persons of interest before they reach Nigeria.

“We can attempt to stop the person from the point of take off and we can also use the information to effectively clear such person of interest.

“It is a new technology in border management which gives us opportunity to create capacity, effectiveness and align with international best practices,” he explained.