548 Cadets graduate from premier Immigration Training School, Kano  

548 Cadets have Tuesday passed out of the Immigration Training School in Kano after a six-month period of physical drills and academic training.

The Cadets, made up of 132 females and 416 males got enlisted into the Service in August last year and were mobilized to the School for the mandatory training for Cadets sometime in November 2021.

Speaking at the Passing out Parade (POP) ceremony, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, according to a statement by Amos Okpu, Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, Service Public Relations Officer, advised the Cadets to chart a career path of honour, integrity and dignity as they begin a significant aspect of their lives, noting that those virtues are indispensable especially in any regimented environment such as Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). He stated that one of the main reasons for their enlistment is for them to make useful contributions to the nation’s border security efforts.

He maintained that “without secure borders, no security measure can work because external criminally-minded persons can infiltrate the country and escape at will, if the borders are not well secured.”

He therefore, enjoined the Cadets to utilize the energy and enterprising spirit of the youths to make useful contributions into the ongoing reform efforts in the Service and regularly strive never to let down the Service that has given them the opportunity to serve. The Minister, who was the Parade Reviewing Officer, was represented by a Commissioner at the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB), Maj. Gen. (rtd.) Emmanuel E Bassey.

Earlier, the acting Comptroller General of Immigration Isah Jere Idris, while congratulating the Cadets for successfully completing the training counseled them to deepen their ICT skill sets to enable them remain relevant in the unfolding realities in the Service. He maintained that NIS as an institution has consistently placed high premium and investments on staff training and retraining efforts. “Our job is high-tech driven; we have highly sophisticated local and international publics to attend to and today’s dynamic world environment demands that Personnel of the Service must be nothing but top-notched professionals who should regularly demonstrate uncommon expertise in the ICT controlled world environment”, he noted.

The acting Comptroller General thanked the Federal government for the enormous support to the Service’s eBorder project and noted that the deployment of ICT solutions to complement border patrol efforts remains very critical to safe and secure border arrangements for the country. He reiterated the Service’s commitment to enabling an enhanced Border security and effective migration management structure and called on the graduates to bring out the benefits of their training in the school to impact meaningfully in their field operations. He assured of adequate rewards for good performances as well as appropriate sanctions for those that would do the contrary.

Earlier, the Commandant of the School, CIS Rano Sabo had stated that throughout the six months training programme the Cadets distinguished themselves, are worthy in character and conduct and so should be commissioned and admitted into the Officers’ cadre of the Service.

Some major highlights of the event included silent drills, combat craft displays by the Cadets and award of the overall best performance to Assistant Superintendent (2) Osamudiamen Cassidy AKOKO.

Dignitaries at the event include the Secretary of the CDCFIB, Mrs. Aisha Rufai, Federal Commissioner, ACG (rtd.) Ado Jafaru, former acting Comptroller General, Senator Kabir Umar, Sarkin Kibiya, serving and retired senior Officers of the Service as well as representatives of the military, security and response agencies in the State.