Immigration gets N2.6bn for polls, warns foreigners

Speaking at a briefing on the service’s preparations for the elections, he said the money would cover allowances of personnel on election duty including their feeding, transportation and other logistics. Babandede threatened to deport any foreigner who attempts to disguise as tourist to illegally observe next month’s general elections, saying the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was already taking care of the accreditation of foreign election observers. He noted that only genuine observers would be allowed access to election venues. “If you are a monitor participating in the elections, you should declare it right from the beginning. We don’t want people to do clandestine operations in the name of elections. We don’t want anybody who will come and create tension and crisis in our community. So any non-Nigerian coming in, we must know the purpose of your visit. “If you get a visa to come to Nigeria to do business, tourism or to participate in something else other than monitoring elections and we find you monitoring the elections, we will charge you and deport you because that is not what you asked for.” Babandede said, adding that before the elections, entry points into the country would be closed, especially land borders.]]>