According to Prime 9ja Online, this statement was purportedly made on Thursday by Ibiemo Cookey, the NIS representative in Bayelsa.
Cookey claims that growing concerns about the number of young people in Bayelsa choosing to travel using the ECOWAS travel certificate rather than obtaining a passport led to the creation of this new document.
The ECOWAS travel certificate was introduced in 2006 as part of programmes to make it easier for citizens of member states to travel together.
Cookey claims that the new strategy is employed by traffickers so they may enter any ECOWAS member state undetected due to low border controls.
He said that following a risk analysis, age review, travel purpose audit, and assessment of frequently visited countries by certificate holders, the NIS had asked the ECOWAS document issuing unit to establish a new security requirement called as the "Suspicious Travel Interrogation Form."
He stated that this security certificate will be necessary as part of the travel papers for Nigerian nationals who desire to go to any of the ECOWAS nations.
According to the Bayelsa NIS spokeswoman, several human trafficking victims have been rescued.
In the course of the investigation, several other people without legitimate justifications for travelling were also refused entry, which, according to him, helped in the rescue of two victims.
“The Bayelsa command will not rest on its oars,” the statement reads, “until the syndicates are exposed and the only well-justified, authentic trips without any link to Trafficking in Persons (TIPs) or Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) are established using our interrogative process and vital intelligence tools to fight the menace.”