The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. File photo
The Federal Government has announced that it now has the capacity to identify and apprehend foreigners who overstay their visas in the country.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said this on Thursday in Abuja during the 2026 Sectoral Performance Review Retreat of the Federal Ministry of Interior.
Tunji-Ojo said the government now possesses comprehensive data that enables authorities to track individuals who have entered the country over the past decade and determine those who have failed to comply with their visa conditions.
According to him, the development followed the establishment of an Integrated Operations Centre and a Network Operations Centre by the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The minister, however, said the FG will go after foreigners who have overstayed their visas, adding that outside of the country, Nigerians are not being spared.
He said, “In NIS, I know we are doing a lot already. As of today, we have been able to build our Integrated Operations Centre and the Network Operations Centre, which we never had before.
“With that, we can access, in the last 10 years, everybody who has entered, where you came from, everything, we have all your records, we have everything, we know the exact people who have overstayed in our country, and we will go after them, with due respect, because, outside of Nigeria, they go after the irregular immigrants and we think we have to protect the sanctity of our borders,” the minister stated.”
The minister also stressed the need for reforms across agencies under the ministry, including the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, to ensure services are delivered transparently and without corruption.
Tunji-Ojo said the goal of government institutions should be to protect citizens, particularly the most vulnerable in society.
“NSCDC provides protection in an organised and corruption-free manner, where the son of a nobody will have the same opportunity as the son of anybody in government.
“If you are a businessman or there is a genuine threat to your life, you should be able to access protection without going through the minister, the Commandant General, or anyone else. It is only then that we can truly say we have a service that works for Nigerians.
“Nigeria should not be about selective service delivery. The essence of government is to protect everyone, with greater emphasis on protecting the weakest in society, ” he said.
Speaking on correctional reforms, he argued that a system where individuals repeatedly return to custody reflects a failure of rehabilitation.
“Anybody who goes in there must be reformed and transformed,” he said, adding that the objective was to reduce cases of repeat offences to the barest minimum.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Magdalene Ajani, emphasised the importance of accountability in leadership.
She said leadership was about “devotion, promises, performance, and impact,” noting that the ministry’s agencies play critical roles that affect the daily lives of Nigerians and therefore require transparency and effective service delivery.
The move to go after foreigners who overstay their visas comes amid renewed efforts by the Federal Government to strengthen border management and enforce immigration regulations across the country.
This definitely would allow immigration authorities to track the movement of travellers and identify individuals who remain in Nigeria beyond the duration permitted by their visas.
