By George Coben, Bauchi
The Comptroller of Immigrations, Bauchi State Command, Abubakar Aliyu, has urged migrants in the state to distance themselves from the forthcoming general elections.
Abubakar Aliyu gave the charge in an interview with AUTHORITY NEWSPAPER on the command’s preparedness for the 2027 general elections.
He said that as non Nigerians, they are barred by the law of the land to partake in the elections, to vote or be voted for.
“Our primary function concerning the elections is to ensure that non Nigerians do not participate in the electoral process,” he said.
Comptroller Aliyu said that the service has all the records of the migrants in the state, with its personnel in all the LGAs.
He said that while they work with the resident electoral officers in the areas, he himself liaises with the resident electoral commissioner at the state level.
Aliyu said that because Nigeria is a signitary to the ECOWAS protocol, migrants from other West African countries have right of entry, residence and establishment in the country.
“By right of entry, any citizen of a member state can go into another member state, territory without a visa, that is why migrants within Bauchi are mostly from the West African sub-region,” the Comptroller stressed.
He stated that during the elections, its personnel would be stationed at designated places, working with other security agencies to enforce non participation of migrants.
On a general note, Aliyu said that migrants who come into the country without visa must have valid travel document without which they would be considered as illegal or irregular migrants.
“So, the term ‘irregular or illegal migrant’, can be used on any person that is coming to a foreign land, whether or not from the ECOWAS countries, without the travel document or did not renew same when it expired,” he explained.
The Comptroller said that some offences commited by the migrants may either require deportation or repatriation.
He said that while those to be deported can only be on the authority of the minister of interior, through the approval of the Comptroller-general of the Immigration Service, the ones for repatriation are handled by the command.
“If, for instance, somebody from Niger is found not to have valid travel document, from here i will return him or her to the border and hand the person over to the officials of his or her country. I have been doing so,” Aliyu said.
The comptroller however said that Bauchi is not a border town and so the population of migrants is not very high.
Also speaking on trafficking in persons, Aliyu said that inter-agency collaboration between the Command and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, is greatly curtailing the menace.
