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.
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