Immigration to register non-Nigerians living in Rivers State

Lorine Emenike

The Comptroller of Nigerian Immigration Service, Rivers state command, Rasheed Segun-Adegoke has said the command will be flagging off the Electronic registration of all non-Nigerians living in the state a few weeks from now.

Segun-Adegoke made this known at a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Union of Journalist, NUJ, in Port Harcourt to partner with the command to enlighten the public on the need to be captured in the Bio-Metric exercise which he said is free of charge.

The comptroller noted that the essence of the E-registration is to enable them to document and know the number and activities of non-Nigerians living in the state.

The NIS Comptroller said: “Essentially, in few weeks time, we will be flagging off the e-registration of all non-Nigerians in Rivers state; including ECOWAS nationals. We need your support to get the message to the people of Rivers State.

“It may affect landlords, it may affect hoteliers because these people live and work within a particular space. We don’t want the landlord to say I don’t know. At a point, we will engage the traditional rulers and nongovernmental organizations to ensure that the information gets to them.

“The e-registration is for us to know the number and activities of non-Nigerians living in Rivers state. They will be documented; they will come in and their biometrics and pictures will be captured.

“So, if you ask me, in a few months time, what is the number of non-Nigerians living in Rivers State, I will tell you off-hand from this exercise. Now, the beauty of it is that there is an amnesty because you may want to ask me about those who are staying irregularly, not illegally, there will be amnesty”.

“The President and Commander-in-Chief, in his magnanimity, has granted a six-month amnesty. So, even if you are staying and you don’t have papers, just come forward. There is no penalty, we will guide you, we will assist you.”

On his path, the state Chairman of NUJ, Stanley Job while receiving the officials of the command said there are a lot of immigrants in the country without valid documents.

Stanley Job while thanking the command for coming up with such an idea, said there is a need for the federal government to guard the borders which will enable them to know those going and coming out of the country.