We’ve right to stop passenger traveling or entering Nigeria – NIS

As Nigeria commences the issuance of visa on arrival for non-nationals as part of the Ease of Doing Business policy, the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) says it has been given the prerogative to bar persons with unexplained motives from entering the country.

The NIS also said it has the right to check the traveling documents of passengers traveling out of the country and could also prevent those with illegitimate documents from embarking on such journey.
This is even as the Comptroller General Immigration Service, Mr. Mohammed Babandede has ordered the tagging of all counters with the names of the officers manning such counters at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos for the proper identification by passengers.
Spokesman for the NIS, Mr. James Sunday, told aviation reporters that the ease of Doing Business’ initiative which came into effect in July 2017 did not imply that the take away the right of the NIS to ensure that anyone departing the country had the necessary document that would aid his or her travelling.
He dismissed reports that Immigration officials at the airports demand for money from the travellers, stressing that anyone with complete travelling documents should not entertain any fear when approached by its officials and should offer no money.
Daily Sun visited the MMIA terminal, and observed that all the 16 counters for immigration where arriving and departing passengers were processed  were tagged with names of officers on duty.
The tag is removed when an officer finishes his or her duty while a new officer who reports for duty immediately also puts his nametag for easy identification.
A source at the airport told Daily Sun that the Comptroller General Immigration Service, Mohammed Babandede ordered the move for proper identification of officers especially those who have contact with passengers given complaints by passengers of inducement from some officers. But he dismissed such allegations as baseless given the presence of so many uniform and non-uniform officials at the airport.
He said: “I cannot start to talk on an issue that there is no fact on ground. The fact on the ground is that for anyone that is travelling, I believe by virtue of exposure, one should be able to know the name of the person that is travelling. Also, we have several agencies there that are in mufti and you can’t just attribute anything that happens at the airport to the immigration officers.

“It is not every time that when you are approached at the airport that it is the Immigration that approaches you. It’s is not always true. Much as I can’t say much on the issue, I cannot confirm that our officer is involved in any shady deal at the airport. What I can say is that our officers wherever they are posted to, do their best to hold the integrity of the nation,” he added.