Federal Government has insisted that any undocumented alien that fails to take part in the e-registration of Nigeria Immigration Service will be deported after the January 12, 2020 deadline.

NIS spokesman, Mr Sunday James, who stated this  in a telephone interview with our correspondent, also said any Nigerian who engaged undocumented migrants as security guards, nannies or housemaids could be sentenced to seven years in jail and fined N1m by the court as from January 2020.

NIS also said aliens who failed to participate in the ongoing e-registration would be deported and might be barred from returning to Nigeria.

James admonished Nigerian employers of irregular migrants to encourage them to register with NIS in order to avoid the stiff sanctions awaiting defaulters.

He stated that concerned foreigners, including ECOWAS nationals, had till January 12 to register on the NIS portal.

James disclosed that over 30,000 migrants had registered in Federal Capital Territory since the programme started in July.

He said, “By the Nigeria Immigration Act, 2015, any Nigerian keeping irregular migrants who have not been documented in their house or in their business places would also partake of the punishment that would be meted out to the undocumented migrant.

“There is a fine of N1m or seven years imprisonment or both for the Nigerian host or employer of the irregular migrant. This would be prescribed by the court. For the migrant, he or she will be deported and would not be allowed to come back to Nigeria. We have given all undocumented foreigners till January next year to register on the e-migration portal.”

Meanwhile, Republic of Benin will on Monday (today), begin the census of her nationals in Nigeria in compliance with the ECOWAS treaty to guarantee their security in the host country.

Announcing this in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Sunday, Deputy General Secretary of Benin Government, Mr Cyrille Govgbedji, told journalists that the exercise would begin simultaneously in Abuja and Saki in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State.

The census would last three weeks, he stated.

On the objectives of the census, Govgbedji said, “the exercise is to make sure that any Beninoise national resident in Nigeria has ECOWAS Identity Card to guarantee his or her stay in accordance with the existing statute.”

Punch