The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has revealed that multiple criminals listed on Interpol’s red notice were recently apprehended at Nigerian airports. According to the minister, the arrests were made within a span of two days, thanks to Nigeria’s improved border surveillance and intelligence infrastructure.
Speaking on Tuesday at a regional workshop on maritime border security in the context of counterterrorism in the Gulf of Guinea, held in Lagos, Tunji-Ojo said the suspects, who were declared wanted by several European countries, were intercepted at the country’s entry points.
“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 lists were arrested at our airports. It means that these people would have come in,” he said.
He further disclosed the nationalities of the suspects, saying, “One came from Italy, one came from Ireland, and 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.”
Highlighting the government’s investment in technology, the minister announced that Nigeria now operates an Advanced Passenger Information (API) system, which allows for pre-arrival passenger profiling.
“Now, we can tell you that Nigeria now has an API solution. We never had that before now. 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 query their travel history,” Tunji-Ojo explained.
He credited the advancement to the current administration, stating, “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 that we’re now fulfilling our international obligations to our international colleagues by being able to uphold the tenets of the UN resolution of the API solution that we have at the moment.”
Also speaking at the event, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, stressed the agency’s critical role in securing Nigeria’s maritime borders. She emphasized that the NIS works to prevent foreign terrorist fighters and transnational criminals from exploiting the nation’s entry points.
Nandap also pointed to ongoing maritime challenges such as illegal oil bunkering, unregulated fishing, piracy, and armed robbery, noting these activities pose serious threats to the safety of vessels and crew within Nigerian waters.
