THE
Federal Government has identified a total number of 84 legitimate and legal
routes through which people could come or go out of Nigeria, while about 1,497
illegal routes that entered the country had also been uncovered.
Determined
to put an end to the unending insurgency in the country, the Federal Government
has, therefore, approached the United States of America (USA) to assist in
addressing the problems of the nation’s porous borders.
Minister
of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, dropped the hint in Abuja, on Thursday, while
presenting the score card of his ministry to the members of the National
Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the media.
He
said the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) would erect control tolls and
border plazas at all the identified legal routes for proper monitoring, with
massive deployment of electronic surveillance equipment to the borders.
Moro
revealed that consultation was on going with the Department of State of the US
to assist with the deployment of modern technology equipment to the borders, to
address the problems, which had allowed all manners of people to come into the
country at will.
According
to him, “we have been discussing with a Chinese private company to provide the
needed modern security equipment for our borders and the proposal was to cost
$244 million before we approached the Department of State of the US for
assistance. We are going to harmonise that of the Chinese with that of the US
to meet our needs.”
He
assured that when the arrangement became operational, the insurgency in the
country would be history, as all the nation’s borders would have been properly
manned and secured.
On
the alleged employment racketeering in some organisations under the ministry
and non-payment of monthly salaries to some categories of staff of the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) since last year, Moro said appropriate
steps had been taken to ensure that officials of the ministry and its agencies
adhered to rules and regulation of recruitment of staff, which had been ignored
in the past.
The
minister said the ministry was set to recruit new hands into the service,
adding that the procedures for the recruitment exercise would be made public
today.
He
also disclosed that efforts were being made to pay the arrears of the
categories of staff of the NSCDC, as he attributed the delay to a shortfall of
about N940 million from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Responding,
the national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, commended the minister
for the various achievements of the ministry in recent time, adding that they
were in line with the transformation agenda of the PDP-led administration of
President Goodluck Jonathan.
Source: Tribune
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