There are fresh fears that porous
Nigerian land borders may thwart the Federal Government’s efforts to
check the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.
Saturday PUNCH’s investigations revealed that the porosity of Nigerian land borders exposed the country to the risk of the deadly disease.
At the last count, there are about 1,479
illegal routes into Nigeria through which smugglers, undocumented
immigrants and terrorists have been infiltrating the country.
Checks also show that port health
officials, who are usually deployed by the ministry of health in border
points, are not available at many of the unauthorised routes where
individuals infected with Ebola virus could access the country without
let or hindrance.
Findings revealed that the 114 regular
border posts manned by immigration and health officers, were inadequate
to protect the country from Ebola virus which could be imported into the
country through infected migrants and even documented visitors.
Although visitors to Nigeria are expected
to possess the International Health Certificate (Yellow card),
investigations show that most foreigners using the international land
borders do not have the document.
Investigations by Saturday PUNCH
indicated that the Nigerian Immigration Service, with 23,000 workers,
and other security agencies do not have the manpower, material resources
and capacity to secure even the normal legal and massive borders and
prevent infiltration of the country by immigrants infected with Ebola
disease.
Thus, infected persons, who do not show
symptoms of the virus can easily enter through the land borders as the
deadly Ebola disease may not be obvious to the health officials and
immigration personnel at land borders.
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