Nigeria Immigration Service Re-opens Land Borders After Presidential Election

by Musa Abdullahi & Agency Report

The Nigeria Immigration Service has been directed by the Federal Government to re-open its land borders by noon on Sunday, reports the News Agency Of Nigeria.

This was disclosed by David Parradang, the Comptroller-General of Immigration, in a telephone interview in Abuja on Sunday.

He said that the directive was given to the service late on Saturday as Nigeria needed to resume activities within and across its land borders which had been closed since Wednesday.

Mr. Parradang said although INEC had extended the voting time in some polling centres to Sunday, government gave the directive with the view that voting in those areas would be rounding off or ended by noon.

He said that the opening of the land borders would not in any way affect the voting process, considering that officers of the service were on a 24-hour surveillance of areas within and around the borders.

Abba Moro, the Minister of Interior, also confirmed the directive.

He said that the directive was given considering the smooth nature in which voting was conducted in most states as well as the effort of INEC to ensure that the process was concluded as soon as possible.

The NIS had, in a statement signed by Chukwuemeka Obua, its spokesperson, on Sunday, said the Federal Government had given a directive to open the land borders by noon.