Recall that Babandede had in May ordered the arrest of former political office holders and retired public servants who are still in possession of Official/Diplomatic passports, directing officers on duty at the various airports in the country to arrest such persons and hand them over for prosecution.
But addressing select journalists at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja, the CG disclosed that since he handed the order, many former political office holders have already turned in their passports.
His words, “The strategy we have put up for those still holding diplomatic passport is to ensure they don’t cross the border. Passports are meant for travel. So anybody who crosses the border in or out; the passports are intercepted and seized. We have seized over a thousand since that time.
“But what is important is that many political office holders have returned their passports. There are cases we have prosecuted jointly with the ministry of justice, some people who have double diplomatic passports; some people who have passports they have not returned. There are a lot of cases ongoing like this.”
Babandede, who went on to declare that foreigners in the country must obey the law and ensure that they are well documented, stated that a law has been concluded upon to be sign by the Interior Minister before the end of the year which would force every Nigerian to register in their local government of residence.
According to him, “We have already concluded to sign a law. The Minister of Interior will in the next month sign Immigration Regulation. This regulation will mandate that every foreigner must register at the local government of his or her residence.
“This will change the paradigm. It means we will have a documentation of all none Nigerians residing in Nigeria. They will be forced to register in each local government of their residence; not local government where they are working. This means we can monitor them.
“It will be made also compulsory for anybody who provides accommodation for them to report if they don’t register. So there is no excuse; if you have house; if you have hotel; and there is a foreigner; you have to report and make sure the person registers,” he said.
Admitting that Nigerian visas are difficult to get and that resident’s permit takes time to deliver, the Immigrations boss pointed out that President Muhammadu Buhari has given the directive that anyone who applies for a Nigeria Immigration facility, must get it on time.
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