Aregbesola charges immigration new recruits on commitment to national security

Segun Oladipupo

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has charged the operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to make useful contributions to the nation’s border security efforts.

Aregbesola, who was at the passing out parade of 548 cadets on Tuesday,stated that without secre border, no security measure can work because external criminally-minded persons can infiltrate the country and escape at will.

He therefore, enjoined the Cadets to utilize the energy and enterprising spirit of the youths to make useful contributions into the ongoing reform efforts in the Service and should regularly strive never to let down the Service that has given them the opportunity to serve.

The Minister ,who was the Parade Reviewing Officer, was represented by a Commissioner at the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB), Maj. Gen. Emmanuel E Bassey (rtd).

The 548 Cadets on Tuesday passed out of the Immigration Training School in Kano after a six-month period of physical drills and academic training.

Amos Okpu, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration Service, the Public Relations Officer of NIS stated this in a news release.

The Cadets, according to the news release, made up of 132 female and 416 male cadets got enlisted into the Service in August last year and were mobilized to the School for the mandatory training for Cadets sometime in November 2021.

Speaking at the Passing out Parade (POP) ceremony, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, advised the Cadets to chart a career path of honour, integrity and dignity as they begin a significant aspect of their lives, noting that those virtues are indispensable especially in any regimented environment such as NIS.

Earlier, the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Isah Jere Idris while congratulating the Cadets for successfully completing the training, counselled them to deepen their ICT skill sets to enable them remain relevant in the unfolding realities in the Service.

He maintained that NIS as an institution has consistently placed high premium and investments on staff training and retraining efforts.

“Our job is high-tech driven; we have highly sophisticated local and international publics to attend to and today’s dynamic world environment demands that Personnel of the Service must be nothing but top-notched professionals who should regularly demonstrate uncommon expertise in the ICT controlled world environment”, he noted.

The acting Comptroller General thanked the Federal government for the enormous support to the Service’s eBorder project and noted that the deployment of ICT solutions to complement border patrol efforts remains very critical to safe and secure border arrangements for the country.

He reiterated the Service’s commitment to enabling an enhanced Border security and effective migration management structure and called on the graduates to bring out the benefits of their training in the school to impact meaningfully in their field operations.

He assured of adequate rewards for good performances as well as appropriate sanctions for those that would do the contrary.