Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Shikfu Paradang, has assured foreign embassies complaining against restrictions on free entry into Nigeria that the service has not targeted the nationals of any particular country for deliberate witch-hunt.
Paradang disclosed that the restrictions and difficulties experienced about free movement at the borders was a policy designed to filter undesirable elements to separate them from genuine migrants coming into the country for business or to participate in development processes.
The comptroller general, who made the remark while interacting with journalists in Abuja, said the policy paid off in 2013 when 150, 840 people without visible means of livelihood were refused entry.
Within the same period also, he said, 12, 690 migrants were repatriated, warning that with the current security situation, the country has no plans to drop the policy since it has assisted Nigeria improve its internal security coverage.
Paradang said that even though the majority of illegal immigrants repatriated and those prevented from entering the country were Nigerien nationals, there is no deliberate policy to witch-hunt or persecute nationals or the people of any country.
He said Nigeria respects the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement but will not stand by and watch illegal immigrants who cannot contribute anything meaningful to the nation’s development or those who by all indications would threaten national security enter the country.
The NIS boss also stated that a comprehensive registration of immigrants resident in the country has commenced to ensure that non-Nigerians are captured in the biometric central database of the Immigration Service for close monitoring of their activities.
He disclosed that the Immigration Service has gone into partnership with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to speed up the process by harmonising available data since many foreign nationals illegally registered and obtained INEC voter registration cards with the hope of using them to vote in the 2015 general elections.
Paradang used the occasion to announce slight changes in the cost of some travel documents, especially the standard e-passport which will now cost N20,000 for a 64-page booklet, N30,000 for change of data on passports, N20,000 for replacement of lost or damaged passports and N15,000 for passports applicants aged between 18 to 60 years.
Two new features were introduced into passport issuance. These are that youths below 18 years will now pay N8, 750 for passports and people aged from 60 years will pay only N8,750 for passport even as change of name for married women, divorced or deceased spouses will also attract N8,750.
The CG thereafter announced changes in the Combined Expatriate Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC), which was redesigned and produced with improved security features “to enable the Immigration Service account for every foreigner in Nigeria with respect to the person’s location and activity or business.”
He said the document was produced in conjunction with a technical partner, Continental Transfert Technique Limited [CONTEC] and can be obtained in seven designated issuing centres listed as Lagos [Zone A], Kaduna [Zone B] Bauchi [Zone C], Owerri [Zone E], Ibadan [Zone F], Benin [Zone G] and Makurdi [Zone H].