Persons of interest can no longer sneak into Nigeria — FG

The federal government has disclosed that the country’s borders are no longer as porous as they used to be, saying persons of interest can no longer sneak into the country.

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this during the 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Series held in Abuja on Thursday.

He said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration had approved several reforms that have made it possible for the Nigeria Immigration Service to perform its core responsibilities of protecting the country’s borders.

While noting that when it comes to national security, when it comes to border control, it has to be 100 per cent,” Tunji-Ojo said a lot of the country’s land border posts have been reconstructed and officers deployed to ensure that migration is regulated.

He pointed out that before now, Nigeria did not have border command and control centres, adding that the introduction of the centres had helped to improve security at the borders.

While disclosing that the centres allow the service to monitor happenings at the borders “on a 24/7 basis”, the minister said the country now has access to the data of migrants even before they get into Nigeria.

“Just two days ago, somebody who has been on the watchlist of Interpol was apprehended in Abuja just because of our command-and-control centre,” he said, adding that another suspect on the international watchlist was apprehended in Lagos last week.

Tunji-Ojo said one of the moves made was the establishment of a data centre where the NIS could easily retrieve data at ease as part of its border security measures.