by Rachel Ogbu

There are about 1,487 illegal routes into Nigeria, Immigration Service has reported.

Reacting to questions on the leaky nature of the nation’s borders, the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, on Tuesday February 5 said apart from 84 regular borders to the country, the service had taken steps by patrolling the illegal routes in order to check the illegitimate movement of people and goods into the country, reports claim.

Considering the security challenges facing the nation, the minister said the government had taken proactive steps to control the entry of illegal people into the country.

“Since I assumed office, we have taken deliberate steps in conjunction with National Boundaries Commission to identify our borders and the routes that lead to Nigeria from other countries, and in the process, we have been able to identify 84 regular borders and over 1,487 irregular routes to Nigeria,” Moro said.

“We are contemplating using the Public Private Partnership model to see how we can construct graders around our borders. As it is today, if you go to many of our land borders, you hardly can define when you are in Nigeria and when you are out of it, and that is because of the lack of physical structure that will separate Nigeria from the other countries.”

Moro added that there were ongoing plans in progress to use the Public Private Partnership model to demarcate further Nigeria borders post with her neighbouring countries to make sure better border management and construction work would start at some of the border posts to ensure effective patrols and better border management before the end of the year.

Moro said the illegal foreigners entering the country at will was not a case unique to Nigeria but the NIS was taking  its responsibility of ensuring that unauthorised people were removed from the country.