Aliens who do not have business in Nigeria will be repatriated –Paradang, Immigration CG

Mr. David Shikfu Parradang, Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), is seen by his officers and rank-and-file as a welfarist who does not handle the well being of his workers with kid gloves. Within one year of hold­ing sway, Parradang has lifted the ser­vice with myriads of initiatives.

For example, he introduced the NIS Border Patrol Squad with 1,000 officers and men posted to all the recognized Nigerian gateways and the illegal gate­ways in the rising wave of terrorism. He also commissioned the Machine Read­able Embarkation and Disembarkation Card at the nation’s airport and fostered infrastructural upgrade in passports offices across the country by involving corporate institutions.

No fewer than 450 illegal immigrants have been arrested and sent back to their countries. In this interview, the immigra­tion boss spoke on some burning issues. Excerpts: 

What are your efforts at repositioning the NIS?

One does not blow his trumpet but for benefit of insight, I have programmed my­self in certain areas. On border patrol, we got approval from government to train our men which we did. Recently, we were in Kano where we commissioned them. We have deployed them and it is a remarkable achievement.

We did not only train and deployed them, we provided sophisticated equip­ment for them to work with. We were able to get patrol vehicles for them. Before now, we had only one patrol vehicle for the whole stretch of Adamawa State. One border patrol vehicle, we have increased it to six. We distributed them for intensive border patron. It is quite a remarkable achievement from zero level to where we are now.

In addition to that, the government approved 30 more control posts. Before now, we had pockets of control posts like in Seme, Idiroko among others. It was too small then, but this time around, we have more than 30 control posts. We now have 27 additional patrol bases to raise the number of 127-patrol basis.

The patrol bases are located in strate­gic places in the sense that when illegal immigrants beat the borders because our borders are too large, they must pass through patrol bases. It is through these patrol bases that we mop up illegal aliens. The strategy is working very well.

Recently, we have been able to intercept a lot of people in Katsina axis. We intercepted lots of people in Sokoto axis, both human traffickers and illegal immigrants. We are keying very well to the agenda of the Federal Government of ridding the country of illegal immigrants. We get more equipment and do more training and retraining, the result will be a phenomenon.

In terms of border patrol, we set up agenda for ourselves and the agenda is to control immigrants in the country. If you escape the border, it is the responsibility of the Immigration Service to monitor where you are at a particular time in the country. You hear people complaining that we have more foreigners, especially Chadians, Lebanese, Indians and Nigeriens among others. It is our primary responsibility to monitor them.

We have removed illegal immigrants for the past six months, we have repatri­ated quite a number of them in Lagos. This is happening simultaneously in other states. People who do not have business in Nigeria must be repatriated and we have been doing so. Before now, we have not heard that someone was repatriated. I am not talking of official deportation.

Within one year, we deported six people including two Chinese who were into illegal mining in Niger State. We deported an Iranian; we deported some Cameroo­nians that were dancing naked in Abuja. We deported a Lebanese behind the nude clubs in Abuja. We follow the rule to the letters in implementing the role of moni­toring aliens.

You see people with temporary card to stay one or two years, before regularizing their stay but right now, we have said no to that. We set up task force all over the states to issue green cards. We have warned that from this month of August, anyone who does not have the Green Card will be deported. We are now totally in charge of the control of the number of people coming into the country. Immediately we get approval from the government to buy biometric registration machine, it will be spread all over the local governments in the country.

If you are a foreigner, you register and we give you a card. We will soon start the exercise. The machine is as little as a small camera. It is not bulky. By biometrics, we have already taken care of those that are supposed to be in the country and of those that will be asked to leave.

How sincere are you with your wel­fare packages for your staff?

For any system to work, you may have the best machines, you may as well have all the monies in the world, but it is the human beings that will do the work. I am of school of management that believes that the man in the centre is the most impor­tant factor of the production. If there is enough motivation of your officers, you will get the best out of them. Training and retraining of officers and their welfare is uppermost in my mind. We have trained a lot of our officers both home and abroad.

There is this multipurpose cooperative society we have set up to cater for officers welfare. We have promoted many officers also to motivate them. But don’t forget that dealing with human beings is a carrot and stick game. So, those who are not supposed to be promoted but bribed their ways through are spotted and dismissed from the service. People that have disci­plinary issues are treated firmly. People who entered with forged certificates are investigated and thrown out of the service.

We have open 14 more passports offices in different countries. We are going to open more passports offices in Nigeria. We are going more technical; we are going to indulge in the use of more sophisti­cated communication gadgets. We are so focused this time around. The good thing is that members of my management team are behind me and are fully in support of what I am doing.

There are many illegal routes across the country, how will you police them?

The first strategy we used when I came on board was to identify all these illegal routes. If one is sick and he or she is diagnosed of the cause of the sickness, it is the first cure to the ailment. We now know them and we have increased our patrol vehicles and we increased the patrol posts and patrol basis.

Nigeria is a country that competes with other countries that come into the country. Our airports were once difficult terrain when people came in, the place would be so hot because there was no air condi­tioner. But the former aviation minister, Stella Oduah, was able to put certain things in place. Now, there is infrastruc­tural development but despite the comfort, the onus is on the Immigration Service to reduce the number of time people spend in our Airports.

Before now, when people came in, it would be difficult to scan the cards as they would be too difficult to scan because they were took big. We were using hand to do the registering of names and other datas. This took along time to do. Now, we are partnering with our friends outside the country to assist us in programming to international standard cards that can enter the scanning machine that will not waste time in getting all the data of the individual in question. With this, people will no longer waste time waiting fort manual. It would be able to attract more investors. If you need the data of a person, you will just press one button and you are through.

Is it true that people lobby for foreign trip?

It is a Nigerian issue. It is not only in my predecessor’s time. It is still happen­ing now where people lobby for foreign posting. Some influential Nigerians would be calling for their relations to be put in foreign mission exercise. But we want to make sure that we use officers that would represent us well. We are looking for dedi­cated officers that will serve the country and the international community well and not the officers that will bring shame to us. That is why we screen them very well before sending them out.

People have accused NIS officers of issuing passports to non-Nigerians, what is your reaction?

We are very much aware that there is no system that people will not attempt to undermine. People are trying it with our officers but we are ahead of them. You will see a Chadian who looks like a Nigerian Hausa, he will try to convince the officers that he is a Nigerian but we know the real Nigerians because we are trained to do so. We will now send people to the town and local government where the person is claiming to come from. People attack the system a lot but we are up to the task. We have warned our officers to be careful about it.

NIS officers have been accused of assisting Lagos State Government in sending northerners back, how true is the allegation?

I want to emphatically state that the Ni­gerian Immigration Service is not against any ethnic group in Nigeria. I want to tell you that Nigeria as a country has enough representatives in our service. At every level in the Service, we have measurable numbers of all the ethnic groups in the Service.

What we do is that during arrest, we pick a lot of people. But as profession­als, we know how to determine who is a Nigerian or illegal immigrant and during screening, we separate the weed from the chaff, we allow Nigerians and those who have genuine documents to go while we repatriate non-Nigerians who have no genuine papers. We screen them one by one.

We are the very proponents of ECOW­AS protocol and it started here in Nigeria. ECOWAS protocols say if you enter with genuine travel document and genuine travel route you are not a hazard to any country or security risk to the country. If you enter through a legalized route, we will allow you to go but if you enter through illegal route, you are not allowed access to the country. We don’t target any segments of foreigners, we don’t target any segment of Nigeria.

We have been able to stand tall and face some “big men” in Nigeria and tell them that we won’t send some people away because they entered through the normal way. Just the other day, I brought 450 vot­er’s cards seized from people who are not Nigerians who have already registered to vote in the 2015 general elections. I have 120 that also have with them the National Identity cards. We are out for those who want to undermine Nigeria and Nigerians.

Where are the NIS patrol aircraft?

The aircraft is very key in our pro­gramme. In the past, we were the ones that supplied the government with images on the Bakassi Peninsula.

That was when our aircraft was func­tional. But the Chairman, House Commit­tee on Interior and the Minister of Interior went abroad recently to see the camera being built for us. It would soon be com­pleted. They are working seriously to see that our aircraft is back on air.

What are the challenges confronting your administration?

We have challenges, we need more staff, and we need more equipment to do the job effectively. We need fund, we appreciate the fact that government is trying within the limited fund they have, but I am of the opinion that security should be given more priority. If there is peace in the country, everybody will go about his or her normal work without fear. If the security of the country is intact, we would be able to plan our economy very well and investors will be coming into the country.

NIS last recruitment exercise was enmeshed with controversy, when is the next recruitment coming up?

I am a member of the Employment Committee. Definitely, very soon because the committee is working assiduously to put certain things in place. Soon, the chair­man of the committee would make public speech about it.

How sincere are you in your war against corruption

We have zero tolerance for corruption. When I came on board, I went round with my management team to warn of­ficers about corruption. If you are caught extorting money from the members of the public, you are shown the way out of the Service. We set up some structures to deal with corruption.

We have sacked officers for one corrupt practice or the other. We have suspended quite a number of them. We are not lacking the courage to deal with corrupt officers. People must attack the system and corruption is one of the ways to attack it. I have reiterated my warning that we have zero tolerance for corruption.