The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has deployed a technology Migration Information Data Analysis System (MIDAS) to enable it monitor the Nigerian borders from its headquarters in Abuja.
According to Muhammad Babandede, comptroller general of NIS, the newly commissioned data communication, command and control centre at the immigration headquarters will improve border security and facilitate better travel experience.
According to him, the unveiling of the centre provided a unique platform for security agencies in the country to truly synergise and harmonise efforts under one roof to frontally address various national security concern using the instrumentality of information and communication technology adding that holders of Nigerian passport can no longer travel with lost, stolen or a reissued passport.
MIDAS which is at the center would allow states to collect, process and record information for the purpose of travellers’ identification, verifying biometrics, inspecting and authenticating travel documents and data collection and analysis.
President Muhammadu Buhari while speaking during the commissioning directed NIS to improve surveillance and control around the nation’s borders and ensure that criminal elements don’t find Nigeria as a safe haven to hide and perpetrate their criminality.’
President Buhari, in his speech at the virtual Commissioning Ceremony of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Technology Building, also instructed all security agencies to raise their performance in protecting lives and property, with a mandate that the country’s Global Security Index must be improved.
“It is imperative that our ranking in the Global Security Index improves and I am using this medium to call on all security agencies to step up their activities towards achieving this goal. I assure you that the administration will give the much needed support to you in your operations,” he said.
The President in a statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, urged the NIS to collaborate with International Security Organizations like INTERPOL in safeguarding the borders.
The President commended Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, minister of Interior, for consistently pushing for the completion of the Technology Building, which he said will serve as the Command and Control Center of the NIS as well as the repository of personal data of Nigerians and expatriates resident in Nigeria.
