…Says Board Will Enhance Fight Against Migrants Smuggling
The Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS) has inaugurated the Objects of Smuggling of Migrants Trust Fund Management Board at the Service Headquarters in Abuja.
This is just as the NIS said that the inauguration of the Board is part of efforts to strengthen the fight against migrants’ smuggling in the country.
According to NIS, the inauguration of the board represents a significant milestone in the agency’s determination to combat persons engaged in migrant smuggling and to also ensure that victims rescued from migrants’ smugglers are rehabilitated to continue to live their normal lives.
Speaking shortly after inaugurating the Board, the Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola commended NIS for constituting the Board, calling on members to work assiduously to combat the worrisome activities of smugglers of migrants headlong.
Aregbesola was represented at the event by a Director in the Ministry, Mr. Peter Obodo.
He noted that henceforth, it would not be business as usual for migrants’ smugglers.
Speaking earlier, the Comptroller General of Immigration(CGI), Isah Jere Idris, who is also the Chairman of the Management Board of the Trust Fund, stated that the activities of migrants smugglers have assumed unacceptable dimension , adding that every necessary measures must be put in place to checkmate them.
According to him, “The event we are having today is one of such efforts we consider important to make a strong statement about our readiness to give migrants smugglers a good fight.”
He pointed out that the task of the Board is quite tough, challenging and enormous and that it would require huge investment of time, courage and experiences by members to make good successes in the fight against migrant smuggling.
He said that Section 97 of the Immigration Act, 2015 provides for the establishment of the Objects of Smuggling of Migrants Trust Fund into which all proceeds of the sale of assets and properties of migrants’ smugglers shall be paid.
The law, the CGI said further provides that the Management Board of the Trust Fund shall comprise representatives from the following agencies: Ministry of Interior, Comptroller General of Immigration as Chairman, Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Office of the Accountant-General, Office of the Auditor-General, Central Bank of Nigeria and National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) among others.
The high point of the event was the declaration of inauguration on the nominated representatives of the related agencies: Ministry of Interior, Women Affairs and Social Development, NAPTIP, Office of the Accountant- General and among others, who were present by Mr. Peter Obodo, who stood in for the Minister of Interior.
With the constitution of the Board, a renewed war has been declared on smugglers of migrants and their illicit assets and estates within.
