We will fish out aliens who registered – Immigration boss

By MUSTAPHA SALIHU

Wednesday, 16 Feb 2011

The Comptroller, Kano State Command of the Nigeria Immigration service, Dr. Brasca Ifeadi, in this interview with MUSTAPHA SALIHU, explains the role of the service during the recently concluded voter registration exercise and how aliens who registered will be detected. What role did the immigration service play in Kano State during the voter registration?


The Federal Government instituted a security system in each state, which is headed by the Commissioner of Police. All heads of security agencies in the state work and collaborate under the umbrella of the commissioner of police. It is on this platform we operated during the voter registration and we were able to detect foreigners attempting to register. Six of them were all arrested within Kano metropolis trying to register as Nigerians.


Those foreigners you arrested, what nationality were they?


All of them are from Niger Republic. It is from Niger Republic we had the highest number of culprits who wanted to register illegally. Some, in fact, succeeded. We arrested six, but three registered. Three of those arrested were caught in the attempt and there were many more that also attempted to register. They gave their names as Murtala Yahaya, who was arrested at Singerr market registration centre; Mohammed Akilu, who was caught at the Kofar Nassarawa Centre and Yusuf Rabilu, who we got at the Yakasai registration point. Salisu Mohammed, Abdullahi Lawwali and Murtala Mukhtar were all attempting to process their registration to obtain the voters card at El-Duniya, Civic Centre and Badarawa Aminudeen Mosque registration centres respectively when they were nabbed.


How were they detected?


They were detected because of the vigilance of the committee. Because of the vigilance of the security officers and people within communities, we were able to grab them. We want to use this medium to warn people generally, that the Nigeria Immigration Service in all the states has been mandated by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma, to ensure that we do our own bit strictly and precisely. She warned that no foreigner must register and make useless, the attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the success of this year’s elections. So, we want those arrested to serve as a deterrent to every foreigner who would want to circumvent the law and register.


But why would a non-Nigerian participate in the process by registering with a view to voting in the April general elections?


Yes, I will like to let you know that we discovered them through analyses and investigations by our investigation unit. We have been able to find out that there was something that has been engineering them to vote, apart from political mobilisation by some illegal elements. Some of them believe that they have lived in Nigeria long-enough and automatically, that makes them Nigerians. This is extremely presumptuous. So, we announced to all foreigners at the time we inaugurated our e-registration on the January 17 that no foreigner, whether black or white, should register.


Did they heed this warning?


Not quite. Many of them have still not learnt from all our admonitions. So, for the six that were arrested, we immediately wrote our report to the Comptroller General of the (Nigeria) Immigration Service. We also wrote a report to the Commissioner of Police. We wrote the reports to enable us to repatriate all of them back to their country. We have selected the border to use through the Katsina area that is nearest to their domain in Niger Republic. We will depot them quickly to serve as a deterrent to others who, up till now, have not learnt their lesson.


There have been concerns among Nigerians about these aliens. What are you doing to deal with the situation? Their influx into Kano has constituted various problems?


We have kept our circuit open. We have our boys in the local government areas. They are sniffing around. Any of them caught will be brought to book. None of them will go unpunished. You know there is no system that is completely error free. But we keep trying our best. We have some problems. We have that common language with many of our neigbours. People from Niger, even some people from Chad, speak Hausa very well and their complexion is the same with ours. So it is actually difficult to detect all the time. But, I assure you that we will try our best to ensure that we continue to fish them out. It is a continuous process.


What happens to those who succeeded in registering? Will they be allowed to vote in the April poll?


No, absolutely no. They cannot vote even though they have succeeded in registering. If we cannot catch them, voting time will come. When they come to vote, we will be waiting. Immigration will be there to ensure that any of them that registered will be caught. Like I said, you can see that we began that on January 17 when we inaugurated the e-registration of all non-Nigerians of African extraction in Kano State. We have 44 local governments in Kano State and we have officers in all the local governments. The governor, (Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau) inaugurated it. He sent the Head of Service to represent him that day and it was a huge success. You see that day, the president of foreigners association who happens to be a doctor, a PhD holder from Ghana, made a very wonderful speech cautioning his colleagues who are not Nigerians that what they are doing it at the peril of the relationship that exists, between them and our country, because we will be hard on them.


Don’t you think they are being mobilised by politicians to register?


What you have said about political mobilisation, is something that is always inevitable because of the lack of understanding of some of our people about political parties. But we don’t want to delve into that now. What we are trying to say is that our people in the local governments are sensitising them, going round and preaching the gospel of people doing what is right. It is a national project. But I know one day we will get there.


Besides the voter registration, what is being done to check the influx of foreigners into the country illegally?


We are working assiduously towards protecting our border posts. The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service has strictly warned all officers who man the entry point because most of them don’t fly in. Most of them come from land borders which are extremely porous because of the sand infested nature of the borders in the North. And remember, this problem is not limited to the North. Also, on the Western and the Eastern sides there are people coming from Cameroun, there are people coming from Benin Republic. The same problem of ethnic contiguity is also affecting them in the West. You have Yoruba people in Benin Republic. The Comptroller-General has said that all state comptrollers that man states with land borders must be vigilant and regularly check their officers to ensure that they do what is right.


So how are you going about this?


There is a mechanism that the Immigration Service has put in place to ensure that we do what is right and check them by this e-registration. They register and get their stay regularised by getting what they call resident card for those who are within the ECOWAS community. Those who are not within the ECOWAS community will regularise themselves properly by passing through the normal process of having entry visa and getting their resident permit, and then the cyber card – the green card. When they get it, their stay is regularised.


Six Nigeriens were arrested. Will they have their documents regularised?


They won’t. Apart from trying to do what is illegal within, their stay will not be regularised. They don’t have papers. Most of them don’t even have travelling documents. Some of them abuse the ECOWAS concept of borderless border. They forget that even with the borderless border, you can come into the country because of the ECOWAS protocol and trade, but it doesn’t stop you from having your travel documents and registering yourselves properly with the immigration immediately you come into the country. If you are in any local government, we have offices in every local government. It is the responsibility of the foreigner to go to the immigration office and register. After registration, you get your resident card and depending on your category, if you are within the ECOWAS community, you get your resident card. Assuming you are from Egypt for example, you get your proper green card.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201102164492737

Story!

how to u intend to do that, Einstein? mtssewww
I'm tired of listening to all these corrupt,clueless and incompetent people called govt officials

rebranded:

Story!

super story

Why wait till after registering before fishing out

Why cant u fish out b4 registering. .funny man!

Why didn't they fish them out during the census?It's a know fact they open the northern borders for those their brothers living in Niger to flood the northern states whenever such registration exercise is in place.
The man should tell the story to the birds.

Story, story!

ladi02:

Why wait till after registering before fishing out

Why cant u fish out b4 registering. .funny man!

Talk is cheap, it's necessary for him to run his mouth so he will get some attention that will make him feel important!

kg:

Story, story!


Talk is cheap, it's necessary for him to run his mouth so he will get some attention that will make him feel important!

You just read my mind, some of our stagnant (brain-dead) appointed and elected public officials often make such comments without the benefit of logic; you must forgive their attempt at being intelligent 

stories, can the finger print detect a non Nigeria? stories, just looking for rank

HAUSA ppl @ it as usual. Why not just break up and join the rest of your camel riding brothers in Niger?

This immigration 'boss' is a dunce. How are they going to fish out illegal aliens that registered when nobody knows how many many illegal aliens are in the country to start with?

What the bleep is this dude on about?

The guy who said that rubbish should be sent to Omuoko for a 1 month compulsory community service

kg:

Story, story!


Talk is cheap, it's necessary for him to run his mouth so he will get some attention that will make him feel important!

true talk sis

mstchew. As if the votes of the true citizens will count

how will he do tha?

Rotflmao!!

Naija for show.

hugooh42:

Why didn't they fish them out during the census?It's a know fact they open the northern borders for those their brothers living in Niger to flood the northern states whenever such registration exercise is in place.

The man should tell the story to the birds.

udezue:

HAUSA ppl @ it as usual. Why not just break up and join the rest of your camel riding brothers in Niger?

^
How is the head of Nig. Immig. Serv. ROSE UZOMA an "Hausa ppl". Are you a bigot or you are just daft?
Instead of pointing out the incompetence of the Nigerian leadership (recently, the gross failure of PDP govt. post-1999 = the hordes of thieves who looted Nigeria pre-1999) you decided to descend to the level of tribalists. If you must tribal-bash, do it justly. Grow up dudes

udezue:

HAUSA ppl @ it as usual. Why not just break up and join the rest of your camel riding brothers in Niger?

  you are a very foolish childish bigot,do urself a favour,leave dat computer and go and read your books,i think waec and Jamb are approaching

I bet dey wuld soon be requestin to import machines to detect nd fish them out! Patriotism don turn to office for dis our kwontri!!

Great, so how many billions do you need for your fish human hook.

Like from mars

aktunde:

mstchew. As if the votes of the true citizens will count

Look @ all these northern namas getting mad

Yes you ppl are @ it again. Everytime there is election of census y'all invite, goats, chicken and ur people from nIGER AND Chad to come and boost your population. That is illegal.

It the TRUTH

How about all ECOWAS members conducting censuses at the same time to check multiple registration and inflated votes, then a comparison of ECOWAS data with that of other regional bodies or that of surrounding nations like Cameroon and Chad?

Biggest joke of the century!

Na today? What of the bororo Niger hoodlums wey dey thief thief property, dey kill people. How many una don catch. Shiio!

This is super story, its a known fact that they speak hausa and are predominantly muslims so they mix very well with the local communities and are encouraged to vote during elections and census by the elite to increase the population data and they have freedom of movement between Nigeria and Niger/Chad. The only ones you can detect among them are the Touaregs or buzu because of their fair skin colour and hair texture.

And how are they going to do that??Except if they culprits have "I'M AN ALIEN & I'M REGISTERED TO VOTE" tattooed on their foreheads, LOL!!!! SCCCHHHHWWWWWWWWW

Olodo!
where were u when the aliens were registering?

Now u want to fish them out, with hook or with what? Idiot

Hey fisher man, u cant get us because we scanned our both legs/hands even our buttocks.

They have started talking again. Fish out who? Spirits when don bless their "Oga" with packs of N1000 naira notes in briefcases. Until we start acting proactively, we are merely wasting our time. Where would they start from with this fishing exercise of their's? River Benue Or River Niger?