Immigration Intensifies Waterways Patrol , As Marine Command Receives 53 Officers To Boost Operations

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Lagos Seaports and Marine Command has received an additional 53 officers to boost the command’s patrol operations on waterways in furtherance to curb human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.

The Marine Command of Immigration is also expected to take delivery of additional patrol gunboats for optimal performance at sea.

Comptroller of Immigration, Lagos Seaports and Marine Command, Mr Mohammed Saddiq, said during a chat over the weekend in Lagos, stressed that about 53 officers including two deputy controllers and seven assistant controllers were deployed to enhance the command’s waterways patrol in the last three months.

According to him, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Caroline Wura Ola Adepoju is interested and commitment to curb illicit trafficking via the waterways hence the deployment of more personnel to the marine unit.

He noted that : “This was done because the Comptroller General of the NIS, Caroline Wura-ola Adepoju, has a passion for patrolling the waterways.

“We also discovered that some of these smugglers use the waterways and we have intensified patrols there and have covered all the jetties. Our officers are in the jetties 24 hours,” he said.

He, however, that they had little challenge in the area of boats, stressing that the service was doing everything possible to address the issue.

“Last two weeks, our procurement department called to tell us that they are working on deploying patrol boats for the command.

“Presently, we have two patrol boats but I reported that we needed more speed boats to enhance our operations and the service is working on it.

 

“We have given them the capacity of what we want and I believe in the next two to three weeks we will get the supply from the headquarters,” he said.

Saddiq added that the command had set up special intelligence units that were deployed to all the jetties within the Lagos metropolis.

“We had a lot of lapses before and these people capitalize on it but with this unit, we were able to checkmate the lapses,” he said.

“We have patrol teams and we still have checkpoints, like in Lagos, in between Badagry and Port Novo, we have a checkpoint along the highways, Panshi village, and in Ogun State.

“These are all in the bid of tracking these smugglers and people without travel documents,” he said.

The Immigration further re-echoed the need for the public and riverine communities to finish the service with useful information to curb human trafficking and illegal migrantion via the waterways.

 

By Roland Ekama