Insecurity: FG Orders NIS To Deploy 50% Of Its Personnel To Border Outposts

The Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS), has been directed to deploy 50% of its personnel to border outposts as the Federal Government intensifies its efforts at combating insecurity in the country. 

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, disclosed this on Thursday, 4th March, 2021, while delivering a keynote address at the commissioning of the NIS’ Technology Building/Command and Control Centre in Abuja. 

The centre was commissioned virtually by President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Delivering a speech titled: A New Dawn In Border Management, Ogbeni Aregbesola while acknowledging the security challenges facing the country, assured that the challenges are surmountable. 

“Though the concerns are shared, there is no need to despair. We are doing everything possible to tackle the security challenges facing our borders, land, sea and air,” he stated.

Speaking further on the deployment, Ogbeni Aregbesola disclosed that the Ministry will make adequate arrangement to support it with materials and needed logistics. 

On the newly commissioned centre, he stated that the complex is the National Command and Control Centre for all data coming from border management outposts, be it satellite, earth connecting stations and unmanned space vehicles. The centre receives and gives out still and motion pictures and audio signals in real time, coordinating seamlessly movements within our borders.

He revealed further that the ministry recognize the preeminent role of information technology in security management. “In the past, border watchers rely on language, physical look and ethnicity for the purpose of identification. This requires a lot of guesswork and the system was beaten easily with disguise,” the Minister said. 

He expressed profound gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his relentless commitment to ensuring that the security and welfare of Nigerians remains a top priority for his administration.