NIS Inaugurates Forward Operations Base in Daura

NIS Inaugurates Forward Operations Base in Daura

By Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has inaugurated a Forward Operations Base (FOB) in Daura, the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari to checkmate the menace of illegal migration and human trafficking.

The project, situated two kilometres away from President Buhari’s residence, was awarded in April 2018 at the cost of N145,485,988.14.

Speaking during the inauguration of the project on Monday, the Comptroller General of the Service, Muhammad Babandede, said the operations base would adequately tackle the menace of human trafficking and other nefarious activities orchestrated by hoodlums in the state.

Babandede, represented by DCG Aminu Idris Jere, added that the FOB would coordinate and transmit electronically security issues to the Service headquarters for prompt action in order to boost national security at the borders and hinterlands.

He reaffirmed that the rationale behind the establishment of the forward operations base was crafted to address impediments faced by officers working to tackle border banditry including smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.

He said: “In the past, officers working in these border frontiers do not have a command and control centres to strategize and effectively coordinate the activities of border officers within defined land borderlines.

“With this project in place, all the activities at Jibia Mega Control Post, Zango, Kongolam, Mai’Adua, Babban Mutum, Dankama and all other patrol bases will be centrally coordinated and report transmitted electronically real time to the service headquarters for prompt and informed decision making to enhance national security at our border lines and the hinterlands.”

In his welcome address, the state Comptroller of the Service, Bn Umar Yakubu, said the command was able to impound more than 500 national documents wrongly issued to foreigners and arrested 83 suspected human traffickers and rescued their victims.

While commissioning the project, Governor Aminu Bello Masari, represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr. Mustapha Inuwa, lamented the porous nature of the country’s land borders.

He therefore charged officers and men of the service to checkmate the proliferation of firearms and human trafficking across borders in the state and the country at large.

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