Umuahia- An Umuahia-based legal practitioner, Alhaji Suleiman Ukandu, has advocated urgent reform of the nation’s immigration policy and laws.
Ukandu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Saturday that the reform became imperative to ensure that the biometrics of foreigners in Nigeria were properly captured and documented.
He said that the increasing menace of herdsmen allegedly from the neighbouring countries also made the reform imperative.
The lawyer said that the herdsmen, who had reportedly caused mayhem in different parts of the country, might have entered Nigeria illegally.
He asked, “how do you know when a Chadian or Nigerien enters into Nigeria?”
According to him, new immigration policy and laws will help to fortify the borders and restrict the movement of illegal migrants into the country.
Ukandu said that those behind the series of killings and maiming of innocent Nigerians might have penetrated genuine herdsmen to carry out their dastardly acts.
He said that cattle-rearing was a commercial venture and those herdsmen were mere merchants, who move their cattle from place to place for grazing.
Such activities, he added, had existed over the ages in the country without crisis between the herdsmen and their host communities.
The legal practitioner said that it was worrisome that the trade had suddenly become a source of national strife, threatening Nigeria’s unity.
“It is, therefore, necessary for us as a country to take adequate measures to protect our borders. We should ensure that those who come into Nigeria from the neighbouring countries are properly documented.
“This will be a major step in the current fight against insurgency in the North-East,’’ Ukandu said.
According to him, the nation’s security is in the hands of God in view of Nigeria’s contiguous borders with other countries tries.
Ukandu said that “the contiguous nature of our borders with other neighbouring countries poses security challenge to Nigeria’’.
He also said that the nation’s borders were “porous and ineffectively manned’’, hence the influx of emigrants who, according to him, enter Nigeria “without proper documentation and records’’.
“Many migrants come into Nigeria without proper documentation and proper records.’’
He warned that the current security challenges in the country would continue as long as the borders remained porous and ineffectively policed.