The Federal Government has said it apprehended at least 10 persons on INTERPOL’s watch list while entering Nigeria.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, revealed this to President Bola Tinubu at the unveiling of the Technology Innovation Complex, at the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters, in Abuja on Tuesday, reports The Punch.
Tinubu was in Sauka to unveil the Data Complex comprising the Command and Control Centre (regular migration), NIS Data Centre, ECOWAS Biometric Card Production Centre, Interior Data Centre and a 0.5KW solar power plant.
Tunji-Ojo said the newly installed facility will ascertain the risk level of persons entering the country, detect irregular migration patterns and monitor unmanned borders in hard-to-reach areas nationwide.
“In the last couple of days, there were 10 people who were on the INTERPOL and immigration wanted list who were apprehended in one week.
“Before now, those people would have entered Nigeria, causing terror. But we have now told them that under the new leadership, Nigeria is a no-go area for any criminal element,” he explained.
Tunji-Ojo said aside from an installed solar power plant of 0.5KWs, 250 trained officers maintain eight-hour shifts to monitor the borders round the clock.
“We decided to do an end-to-end solution; one that has an energy solution to power this facility. The 0.5KW solar power plant is 100 per cent ready here and it has been connected to the facility to power it.
“Also, the human factor is fundamental because you can build a structure, but how about the human element?
“What we’ve been able to do is to train 250 officers. As I speak, we run shifts of eight hours three times a day which is 24/7 surveillance,” he added.
Tunji-Ojo also said Nigeria is expected to save over N300m annually with the new facility.
He explained, “Nigeria was wasting billions every year, but with this state-of-the-art technology, the country will save over N300m annually.
“We now have an ECOWAS travel document that will facilitate easy movement and travels and for the first time in the history of this country, we now have over 200 borders and we are fully incharge of the border governance, watching over them.
“We now have an automated visa regime with 48 hours visa approval. In the area of Correctional information management, in less than 3 hours we shared information amongst security agencies during the flooding in Maiduguri.”
The minister commended the office of the National Security Adviser for its support, adding that the centre will operate 24/7.
The complex comprises of seven key components including a Data Centre, a command and control centre, a visa approval centre, an ECOWAS centre, and a solar farm has already been described to you and the passport personalisation centre.
