Nigerian authorities have begun registering all alien Africans residing in the country “for both security reasons and good neighbourliness”.
Citizens have been urged to encourage African aliens living in their midst to take advantage of the opportunity.
It is alleged that over ten million aliens most of them from neighbouring Benin, Niger and Cameroon are illegally residing among Nigeria’s estimated 130 million inhabitants.
The country’s Minister of the Interior, Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho explained that the exercise was aimed at assisting Nigerians to know their neighbours and co-habitants.
Launching the exercise this week in Abuja, Captain Iheanacho said that the process was a milestone in the history of modern migration management in Nigeria, a local radio said. The minister explained that the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card project had provided electronic records of all legally resident non-Africans.