Tunji-Ojo: FG’s immigration database can facilitate arrest of suspects on Interpol list

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, says some criminals on the red list of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) were arrested at Nigerian airports.

Tunji-Ojo spoke on Tuesday at a regional workshop on maritime border security.

The workshop held in Lagos and had as its theme: ‘Regional Maritime Border Security in the Context of Counter Terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea’.

He said the arrest was possible due to the investment in surveillance and intelligence-gathering equipment at the nation’s border points.

The minister stated that the criminals originated from several countries, including Italy and the Republic of Ireland.

“I can tell you that to a large extent, we have built a robust database, and we are reaping the fruits of that. Now, it will interest you that a couple of weeks ago, within two days, a lot of people on the Interpol and red list were arrested at our airports. It means that these people would have come in,” he said.

“One came from Italy, one came from Ireland, the other one, I think, from a couple of countries. These people would have come into Nigeria 18 years ago, but now we know that in terms of our air terminals, they are in sync because it’s integrated into the central system.”

The minister also said Nigeria, for the first time, has advanced passenger information (API) used to profile passengers coming into the country.

“Before now, we were one of the few countries without an API solution, without the opportunity for our immigration officers to pre-profile people coming into Nigeria, not being able to query their background, query their record system, query their antecedents and their travel history,” he said.

“We never had that capacity before President Bola Tinubu came on board, but today, I tell you, NIS has that, so if you’re coming into Nigeria today, before you come, we know everything about you.

“We’ve queried you, we know where you’re coming from, and we can tell from their aspect, we’re now fulfilling our international obligations to our international colleagues by being able to uphold the tenets of UN resolution of the API solution that we have at the moment.”