As Nigerians prepare for the 2019 general elections, the Comptroller of Immigration Service, Enugu State Command, Sam I. Chinda, has advised all non-Nigerians resident in the state to quickly surrender their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to the Immigration office in the state as they are not expected to participate in the elections.
He gave the advice during a meeting in his Enugu office on Thursday with leaders of non-Nigerians, who were drawn from the 17 local government areas of the state.
According to him, in the Immigration Act, anybody coming to stay up to 56 days in Nigeria ought to register with the immigration, stressing that the registration is free.
“Registration is free; we are not supposed to collect any money from you. All we want is for you to come and register,” Chinda said.
He advised non-Nigerians, particularly those from the West African sub-region who are living in Enugu state, to by all means, register officially with their various town unions and also the immigration offices for proper identification.
He warned them against falling into the temptation of being used by politicians to cause confusion or political violence during the elections.
He explained that in case where any of them had obtained the PVC in error, such individual should surrender it to the immigration which in turn will return it to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state since non-Nigerians are not expected to take part in the elections.
Chinda emphasized that the Comptroller General of Immigration (CGI) had earlier directed that nobody who is not a Nigerian should participate in the elections next year, adding that “may be, out of ignorance some of you obtained the PVCs, but if you return it to us nobody will penalise you; but if you are caught with PVCs during the elections, you will be punished.”
He re-stated that “as long as you are not a Nigerian, you will not be allowed to vote during the elections.”
Turning to the Divisional Immigration Officers (DIOs) who came from the 17 local council areas in the state, Chinda reminded them that as representatives of the Immigration Services in all the local government areas, it was their responsibility to properly educate the non-Nigerians on how to do the right thing without violating the laws of the country.
He warned the DIOs to avoid extortion from the immigrants since their behaviours would eventually get back to the office
“If you go there to extort them, they will get back to us and the Service knows what to do to such officers. The service frowns at bad behaviours from officers,” he warned.
Chinda, however, advised the DIOs to always look out for the immigrants who are with PVCs, although he reminded them to also cooperate with leaders of the non-Nigerians to enable them retrieve the PVCs from them.
Some of the leaders of the immigrants promised to cooperate with the immigration Services, noting that they would pass the message to their people.
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