LAYI OLANREWAJU, Ilorin
Forty- six years after its establishment, the Kwara state Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, yesterday moved to its permanent office.
The office, located along the old Jebba road, Apata Yakuba, Ilorin was yesterday commissioned with funfare, even as the organisers ensure full compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
In a virtual message to the event, the ministry of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola said the new NIS office complex in Kwara and some other states were parts of deliberate efforts by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to improve infrastructural development across the country.
He noted that a conducive working environment would also bring about improved manpower and human capital development.
Aregbesola charged the NIS personnel to make the nation’s border post very tight in order to prevent illegal entry by human, drug trafficking as well as importation of COVID-19 into the country.
Kwara state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who commissioned the office complex, assured the NIS management of the support of his administration to
further enhance the performance of the service in the state.
The Comptroller of NIS,Babandede who joined the event online thanked the minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola for his support for NIS which has made possible the construction of new command offices, including  that of Kwara command.
The Kwara state command of NIS was established in 1974 with an office at Taiwo road, Ilorin. It later relocated to the Federal Secretariat Complex in Ilorin in 1987.
In her remarks, the Comptroller overseeing NIS Zone ‘D’ Minna and Kwara state Command, Edith Onyemenam, said the new office complex in Ilorin “is a milestone achievement recorded by the Nigeria Immigration Service.”
She said the command’s staff strength has grown in leads and bounds and ” we are privileged to have two control posts and nine patrol bases with countless number of irregular routes.”
The NIS Comptroller proudly announced that the surge in number of staff strength and control posts/ bases and irregular routes has helped greatly in preventing the influx of irregular migrants and importation of COVID-19 into Kwara state.
While acknowledging the monumental achievements that the service has recorded under the leadership of the Comptroller General, Muhammad Babandede, Onyemenam noted that the new NIS office in Ilorin would reposition the command to serve the people of Kwara state more effectively.