With barely one week to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Isah Idris, has approved the immediate reposting of 41 senior officers mostly domiciled in border states.
According to a statement signed on Sunday by the NIS Public Relations Officer, Tony Akuneme, “the redeployment affected 11 Assistant Comptrollers General in charge of the various zones and 30 Comptrollers posted to new states.”
The statement is titled, “Ahead of 2023 elections: NIS redeploys 11 ACGs and 30 state comptrollers.”
“According to the posting order, signed on behalf of the Comptroller General by the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Human Resources, Usman Babangida, the states affected were mainly those that bordered Nigeria with neighbouring countries,” the statement read in part.
They include Yobe, Adamawa, Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Oyo, Lagos (Seme Border) and Cross River states.
Other states who are getting new Comptrollers include Gombe, Kaduna, kano, Plateau, Bauchi, FCT, Nassarawa, Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers (Marine Command), Anambra and Enugu, among others.
According to Akuneme, “all the deployments are with immediate effect and the CGIS placed a very high premium on the critical role of his personnel in the success of the forthcoming general elections.”
The development comes 11 days since the Service seized 6,216 permanent voter and national identity cards from migrants in 21 border states nationwide.
According to the immigration chief, 2,393 voter cards and 3,823 National Identity cards were seized from persons believed to be in unlawful possession of the documents.
The states where the items were seized include Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, and three others.
Idris said the cards were seized during current operations to prevent immigrants from neighbouring countries from participating in the forthcoming general elections.
He revealed that the immigrants, most of whom hail from West African states have been deported to their various homelands according to the ECOWAS Protocol on freedom of movement.
Therefore, he warned immigrants caught trying to vote will face firm sanctions.
