Immigration gets N2.6bn for polls, warns foreigners

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has received N2.6 billion
for election security duties from the federal government, the
Comptroller-General of the service, Muhammad Babandede, said in
Abuja yesterday.

Speaking at a briefing on the service’s preparations for the
elections, he said the money would cover allowances of personnel on
election duty including their feeding, transportation and other
logistics.

Babandede threatened to deport any foreigner who attempts to
disguise as tourist to illegally observe next month’s general
elections, saying the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was already
taking care of the accreditation of foreign election observers. He
noted that only genuine observers would be allowed access to
election venues.

“If you are a monitor participating in the elections, you should
declare it right from the beginning. We don’t want people to do
clandestine operations in the name of elections. We don’t want
anybody who will come and create tension and crisis in our
community. So any non-Nigerian coming in, we must know the purpose
of your visit.

“If you get a visa to come to Nigeria to do business, tourism or
to participate in something else other than monitoring elections
and we find you monitoring the elections, we will charge you and
deport you because that is not what you asked for.” Babandede said,
adding that before the elections, entry points into the country
would be closed, especially land borders.