President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the tightening of security at all borders in the country due to the 2023 elections.
Immigration Service (NIS), Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this on Tuesday, January 31.
According to him, the directive was to keep out all foreigners seeking to illegally participate in or manipulate the polls.
Buhari asked the NIS to ensure water-tight border surveillance and control.
He said:
“The order from President Muhammadu Buhari is that between now and the time that we conclude all the elections, please make our borders impregnable. They should remain impregnable, even after the elections.
“We don’t want a situation whereby those who are not qualified to vote in Nigeria will come into our country to illegally participate in the process.
“As you are aware, Nigerians will go to the polls in a little over three weeks in what will be our seventh consecutive General Election since the restoration of democracy in 1999. The election will hold in two phases.
“The national elections (Presidential and National Assembly) will hold on February 25 to be followed two weeks later by state elections (governorship and states Houses of Assembly) on March 11.
“Nigerian election is huge and complex. Election is the biggest logistical operation that Nigeria undertakes every four years. 93,469,008 registered voters are expected to elect a President, 28 State Governors and 1,462 legislators (109 Senators, 360 members of House of Representatives and 993 members of State Houses of Assembly).
“The commission is mobilising about 100,000 vehicles and 4,000 boats for the deployment of personnel and materials to 176,846 polling units spread across 8,809 Registration Areas (or electoral Wards) in 774 Local Government Areas nationwide.”
He disclosed that the nation’s borders would soon be covered using the latest technology.
The minister said:
“We are deploying electronic digital technology to ensure 24/7 inch-by-inch surveillance of the 4,500 kilometres borderline from the eastern part to the western part including coastlines. This is one of the several achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Katsina has 14 border positions manned by Immigration personnel on the about 400km borderline, and the people of Katsina must be confident of our readiness to protect these border positions.”
This came on a day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sought the support of the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) on logistics.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who spoke at a meeting with the Group Managing Director of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, said the commission would need the oil company in ensuring that the current fuel scarcity does not pose any major challenge to the commission on election day.
At a meeting with the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the INEC boss hinted that fuel scarcity may negatively impact the conduct of the election.
