FG closes land and sea borders for polls

THE Federal Government on Wednesday directed that all land and sea borders with neighbouring countries be closed from midnight of Thursday (today) to the midnight of Saturday to allow for a hitch-free poll.

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang, who announced this in a statement in Abuja, said immigration personnel had been deployed in land borders to ensure that no illegal migrants entered the country during the election.

The statement by the NIS Public Relations Officer, Emeka Obua, quoted the CG as saying this during a meeting with some embassy officials and leaders of the Economic Community of West African States from Niger Republic, Senegal, Chad, Cameroun Republic, Guinea and Mali.

Parradang cautioned foreigners resident in Nigeria against coming to vote during the elections, adding that any non-Nigerian caught voting would be prosecuted for violating the electoral laws and be jailed.

He advised embassy officials and community leaders to ask their nationals to keep off polling centres, noting that the warning had become necessary to ensure that the existing robust relationship among member-states in the sub-region was not undermined by unnecessary meddlesomeness in the internal electoral affairs of other states.

The statement read, “The CG announced that effective from midnight March 26 to midnight March 28, 2015, all land and sea borders across the country would be closed to allow for a hitch-free election slated for March 28, 2015.

“He also enjoined the community leaders to advise any of their nationals who is in possession of Nigeria’s Permanent Voter Card, National Identity Card or Passport to surrender same immediately as anyone caught with any of them shall be brought before the law.”

The CG further stated that the NIS would soon embark on biometric registration of all the ECOWAS and other African citizens resident in the country to build a reliable database of all non-Nigerians resident in the country.

According to him, a total of 2,066 irregular migrants, who were rounded up across the country, had been deported.

Meanwhile, the CG has approved the deployment of five Deputy Comptrollers-General and Command-Comptrollers to different parts of the country to monitor the polls.