* The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola adorned in Nigeria Immigration uniform reading his speech .
The Honourable Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has urged the 320 operatives made up of 70 officers and 250 other ranks trained to be deployed to the North West to do the nation proud in their assignment to the North West .
The Minister stated that with the intensive training they went through,he was optimistic that no unwanted element would escape into the country, and that they should see their duty in the North West as the highest national service to keep the border safe and the country.
Aregbesola observed that much has been committed to training them that they should justify same by being professional while protecting the country from influx and infiltration by irregular migrants and other unwanted elements, as they support the Military in the North West.
The Minister observed that the contiguous and homogeneous nature of the border communities calls for NIS-border community relationship to safeguard the borders thereby guaranteeing safe nation which is the ultimate using intelligence gathered from community members who will only share information available to them when they have confidence in the operatives and accept them as part of the community not just government official.
Speaking on the development, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service Muhammad Babandede emphasized the need for the officers to avoid compromise in the cause of their duties, reiterating that the service cannot afford to go back to the era of non challancy and arbitrary abuse of their duty call, which demands commitment and bravery.
The 320 operatives were further charged to put national interest before any other thing to succeed and deliver on the mandate of the service to the nation.
Babandede observed that the NIS-JTF component have being on national assignment since 2009 and demobilised with new sets trained and sent to take charge on routine basis.
They are expected to cover about 700 kilometres along the flanks of the neighbouring Cameroun, Niger, Chad, Benin Republic covering the North East and West of the country.
He thanked the Minister of Interior for the Ministry’s support and Executive approvals in getting the request of the contingents met, whenever they are deployed to take care of their welfare.
Babandede requested the Minister to further support the service in the purchase of more patrol vehicles, uniform among others, disclosing that 3,548 junior officers were promoted at the early part of 2020 and in September 2020, 5321 senior officers have just been promoted for the year 2019 and released in 2020
