Immigration to ensure ‘judicious use of N2.6bn elections fund’

Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr Muhammed Babandede, says the N2.6 billion approved for the Service’s role in the forthcoming general elections will be judiciously used.
He gave the assurance at the “General Election Sensitisation for Heads of Formations” of the Service in Abuja, on Thursday.
Babandede said that officers had the huge responsibility of ensuring that every citizen exercised his constitutional right to vote and be voted for under a peaceful environment.
“We will complement the Police in its functions, in addition to our main function,” he said.
Babandede added that other functions of the service included ensuring that borders did not attract people who would cause crisis during the elections.
He said that NIS would also ensure that politicians who were capable of inviting foreigners to participate in the election and create tension did not succeed with such actions.
“The minister of interior will declare land borders closed during the period and we have the ability of identifying non-Nigerians and we have been identifying them,” he said.
The comptroller-general disclosed that NIS had seized Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from foreigners at the point of entry or in the process of applying for passport, and had returned them to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“We will not allow non-Nigerians to participate or try to contest elections,” he assured.
He urged the officers to desist from associating with politicians who would want them to compromise their loyalty to the Federal Government.
“Nigeria is greater than any individual. We will do our best to ensure credible elections.”
On the new International Passport, Babandede said that 25 additional security figures were added to it and that it would save Nigerians in the Diaspora time of frequent visits to Nigerian Embassies.
“We encourage people to pay online. We have worked together with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to work on alert system where we can send you an alert as reminder that your passport has expired.
“We must eliminate corruption in the system; we must ensure that this document has the value that we say it has.”