The Nigeria Immigration Service has budgeted N166m to purchase tricycles (Keke NAPEP) to patrol the nation’s porous borders as part of strategies to combat terrorism.
The plan to buy the tricycle listed under the code, NIS002000079, was contained in the 2014 budget proposal of the agency with total budget allocation put at N39,302,208,398.
It was described as an ongoing project.
Nigeria has 84 legal borders and 1479 irregular routes which illegal aliens, Boko Haram terrorists and smugglers are known to use.
The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, had announced in March, 2012 that the Federal Government planned to build 84 plazas at the identified legal routes as part of the ways to checkmate activities of criminals and infiltrators.
According to him, the government would introduce the electronic components for the surveillance of the borders with a central post in Abuja or any part of the country that is deemed fit or appropriate.
But this had yet to be done 22 months after and there was no listing for the plazas in the budget.
Source: Punch
