Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Betta Edu has confirmed that illegal borders are abundant in Nigeria.
Edu made the confirmation during her courtesy visit to Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in Abuja.
According to her, there was a need for inter-ministerial collaboration to effectively address the issues of illegal migration and human trafficking.
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive News updates directly on your WhatsApp!
The Humanitarian Minister believed that tackling the root causes of poverty and humanitarian crises, namely insecurity, illegal migration, and human trafficking, was of utmost urgency.
To combat these challenges, Edu assured the Interior Minister that the National Social Register would be expanded to encompass the families and widows of ex-servicemen in the paramilitary organization.
She said:
“The inmates of the Nigeria Correctional Services will also be captured to benefit from the skills acquisition programmes of my ministry. For us to achieve the desired result, we must ensure effective and sustainable inter-ministerial collaborations.
“We need intelligence from you. We just got the approval for officers from NAPTIP to be present at the different ports. We need you to know the importance of our collaboration with you on the border.
“We have to find ways to step up our intelligence in Nigeria. We have too many illegal borders.
“We are here for serious business, and for us to succeed, we must work as a team through inter-sectoral and ministerial collaboration to achieve success. My new responsibilities cover a greater population of vulnerable Nigerians and to provide them with humanitarian services and alleviate their poverty in line with President Tinubu’s agenda.
“We need your support, and the heads of security agencies here will help us to work with our team to gather intelligence on how people are moving in and out of our country. There are issues of human trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation, amongst other things, which lead to humanitarian crises. We cannot continue to allow this trend to go unattended. It’s not acceptable. We need your support.”
