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Officials of Port Health Services (PHS) Seme border post have returned to the departure side of the post 27 months after being stopped from operating by the operatives of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS)
The PHS officials were seeing operating at the new ECOWAS pedestrian walkway opened for operation at both arrivals and departure halls.
The newly constructed ECOWAS pedestrian walkway was to enable the intending travelers to walk from one country to another after being properly checked by the operatives of Nigeria and Benin Republic.
It was observed that pedestrian coming from Nigeria border would first be attended to by the officials of PHS and after being satisfied with his health status, the passenger will then move to NIS section where his or her documents would be checked.
The Customs Service operatives, DSS will also check the travellers bags before the officials of Benin Republic Police and Customs do their own checking.
An official of PHS who spoke on condition of anonymity said that they were booted out of their envious protocol position by an overzealous NIS operatives on Feb.2, 2019.
“Before the construction of the walkway, we are not allowed to do our duty at the departure hall, the NIS said that we have no business coming to check the passengers departing the country.
“Despite the fact that the Minister of Health, through the Director of PHS, had mandated the health officials to perform entry and exit screening of passengers at the Port of entry and exit at land borders, we have been restricted to arrivals alone.
“But today, two years and two months, PHS operatives are back at their duty post at both arrivals and departure halls with the opening of the pedestrian walkway for travelers coming in and out of the country.
“This is victory for the PHS and for the best interest of Nigeria and the international communities as it is step in the right direction of border health security agenda,” he said.
Mr Emmanuel Sewedo, a Nigerian traveling to Benin Republic through the pedestrian walkway commended operatives of both countries for making use of the walkway.
“As you can see now, the Nigeria-Benin border post is neat and not rowdy like before when all of us used to pass the post.
“The post is now mainly for vehicles and trucks coming from different countries and the officials of the two countries are their to check them.
“This also applies to us in the walkway, we are being checked by their officials and it is very fast,” he said.
On Feb.2, 2019, the operatives of NIS stopped PHS officials from operating at the departure side of the Nigeria-Benin Republic border in Seme.
At Seme border,it was observed that port health officials who were stationed with Directorate of State Security, customs and immigration at Nigeria’s end had vacated their seats.
It was revealed that the port health officials had been forcefully chased out of their duty post on February 2 by gun-wielding NIS officials.
Mr Emmanuel Onile, the former Officer in Charge, PHS at Seme, said that he had petitioned immigration authorities on the intimidation of PHS officials by immigration at the border.
“Around 12 hours on Saturday, February 2, the leader of PHS afternoon shift called me that an NIS officer, named Kawo, asked them to vacate the departure end of the border, according to instructions from his boss.
“My staff replied that PHS team was posted to the border post by Federal Government and they cannot leave the place.
“My staff told me that the immigration officer left and later came back with about 20 gun-wielding NIS officers who forcefully sent PHS men away and took away their chairs.
Onile said that since the beginning of February, PHS officials were only allowed to operate at the arrival side of the border, adding that they were not allowed to work in the departure area.
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