With barely one week left before the Presidential and National Assembly elections, Comptroller‑General of Immigration Isah Idris has approved the immediate redeployment of 41 senior officers, most of whom are based in border states. In a statement signed on Sunday by NIS Public Relations Officer Tony Akuneme, it was announced that the redeployment involves 11 Assistant Comptrollers General overseeing various zones and 30 Comptrollers assigned to new states. The posting order, signed on behalf of the Comptroller‑General by Deputy Comptroller‑General for Human Resources Usman Babangida, targets states that border Nigeria’s neighbours, including Yobe, Adamawa, Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Oyo, Lagos (Seme Border) and Cross River. Additional states receiving new Comptrollers are Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau, Bauchi, the FCT, Nasarawa, Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers (Marine Command), Anambra and Enugu, among others. Akuneme emphasized that all deployments take effect immediately, noting that the CGIS places a very high premium on the critical role of its personnel in ensuring the success of the forthcoming general elections.
The redeployment follows, eleven days earlier, the seizure of 6,216 permanent voter and national identity cards from migrants across 21 border states. According to the immigration chief, 2,393 voter cards and 3,823 national identity cards were confiscated from individuals believed to be in unlawful possession of the documents. The seizures occurred in Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and three other states. Idris explained that the operation aimed to prevent immigrants from neighbouring countries from participating in the upcoming elections. He added that most of the detained immigrants, who hail from West African states, have been deported in accordance with the ECOWAS Protocol on freedom of movement, and warned that any immigrant caught attempting to vote will face firm sanctions.
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