From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Amid rising insecurity, the Federal Government has been tasked to embark on preventive measures against immigration-related vices which open up the nation’s borders to security breaches.
Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja made the call at a two-day maiden conference on Immigration Law and Policy organised by Nigerian Immigration Lawyers Association (NILA).
In his keynote address, he tasked the Ministry of Interior, Nigerian Immigration Service and other stakeholders to act with heightened sense of urgency, improve border operations and make them resilient against internal threats and assault on the nation’s territory.
“It becomes imperative to underscore a higher responsibility imposed on the immigration sector to take steps to deal with terrorist activities at their earliest stages. In dealing with migration gaps which strengthen terrorist networks, I advocate more preventive mechanisms in preference to prohibitive measures. In other words, efforts should be placed on the early prevention of illegal and irregular migration by improving border management than by merely prohibiting and criminalising them. At the height of threats to national security, and of particular interest to Nigeria, is the menace of terrorism. Statistically, Nigeria has one of the highest terrorism threat levels in the world. In a recent terrorism report in 2022, the country was ranked as the second country with the largest number of terror-related deaths in the world, next only to Afghanistan,” Dimgba said.