The
Comptroller of Immigration, Murtala Muhammed International Airport
(MMA), Lagos, Mrs. Chizoba Dibi, said that the command processed a total
of 2,785,458 passengers at the airport in 2014.
She disclosed this when the Comptroller General of Immigration (CGI), Mr. Martins Abeshi, visited the airport recently.
A breakdown of this figure, according to
the MMIA Immigration boss, indicated that 1,294,010 of the figure
processed were arriving passengers while 1,491 passengers were departing
passengers.
Dibi also disclosed that in 2014, the
command refused departure to 238 persons, refused admission to 297,
while regular deportees stood at 5,149 and special deportees 900.
She also informed that 12 foreigners
were repatriated, recorded 17 stowaways and received 2,902 Nigerian
returnees in the period under review.
On the revenue generated by the agency
at the terminal within the period, Dibi stated that the command
generated $704,058, noting that airlines owed the agency $65400 while it
owed the Federal Airports Authority (FAAN) N61, 273.00 in 2014.
Similarly, the Comptroller of
Immigration, MMIA, hinted that between January to August, 2015, the
agency processed a total of 1,421,267 passengers.
She explained that out of the 1,4421,267
passengers that were processed, 665,450 were departures while 755,817
were arrivals, adding that 353 persons were refused departure,147
refused admission and that the number of regular deportees stood at
3,102 in the period under review.
Other figures released by Dibi include;
special deportees which stood at 508, repatriated foreigners, five,
Nigerians that were deported 1, 420 and one stowaway.
She revealed that the command generated
$657,064 between January and August 2015, airlines indebtedness to the
agency as carrier liability stood at $1,170,000 and that between the
period under review it owed FAAN N61, 273,030
On the 2015 hajj operations, she said
that departure clearance for pilgrims to Mecca was ongoing and that 26
flights had departed with a total of 6,967 pilgrims from Lagos, Oyo,
Ogun, Edo and from the Armed Forces between August 23 to September 6,
2015.
He stated that all these pilgrims were
airlifted by Medview Airline, one of the domestic airlines in the
country and one of the airlines approved for the operations by the
National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCOM).
On the challenges facing the command,
Dibi stated that one of the major challenges of the agency at the
airport is that it does not have a single vehicle and also lacks funds
to run the command.
Other challenges include: inadequate
space for its offices and passengers, breakdown of cooling system,
intermittent power supply and lack of operational workforce of the rank
of ASI to superintendent instead of the large number of senior officers
that were available at the command.
