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By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has disclosed that about 97,000 passport booklets have been uncollected within the 36 states, together with Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
This was disclosed to the Information Company of Nigeria (NAN) by the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO) Comptroller of Immigration, Mr Tony Akuneme, on Friday.
Mr Akuneme mentioned that the service not too long ago came upon that Lagos State had half of the uncollected passports.
He mentioned that there was additionally a hazard that half of the house owners of the uncollected passports couldn’t be reached attributable to a scarcity of correct documentation due to third-party involvement.
He additionally mentioned that the essence of a latest state of emergency declaration was to attract the eye of the media in order that lots of people that have been oblivious might know that their passports have been prepared for assortment.
He mentioned, “A few of them engaged brokers to assist them of their passport processing, and these brokers may be doing this for lots of individuals.
“They find yourself dropping improper contacts and thereby making it tough to succeed in out to the house owners of those passports when they’re prepared for assortment. This can be a large problem,” he mentioned.
The SPRO mentioned that the service not too long ago came upon that almost all candidates’ complaints ranged from human issue to technical elements, which included the gradual pace of web providers, which led the Performing Comptroller Common, NIS, Mrs Caroline Adepoju, to declare a state of emergency on passport issuance throughout the nation.
In line with him, the CG didn’t need to depart anybody unsure as to the difficulty of passport processing, with this being her core space of curiosity.
“That’s how she happened that time period of declaring a state of emergency within the passport points.
“When the performing CG assumed workplace, she made it very clear that she was going to deal with Passport reforms and employees welfare,” he mentioned.
In line with him, the Lagos state Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is prepared to collaborate with the CG by way of increasing the passport providers in Lagos State.
“So, we went to Lagos State Governor to assist by way of giving us workplace house the place we will arrange entrance desk workplaces, and instantly, the governor was very optimistic in his response.
“Lagos is a vacationer place, and immigration has a key function to play within the thoughts of anyone visiting the state.
“So it was a welcome improvement, and you may see that the state of emergency that was declared is already yielding fruits because the governor accepted CGs request on land allocation to construct employees quarters in Lagos,” he mentioned.
Mr Akuneme mentioned that the service was collaborating with the media to vary the notion there have been no passport booklets for assortment.
He mentioned “there are booklets issued that aren’t collected. It’s ironic, we don’t have an issue of booklets, we don’t have a scarcity of booklets.”
“What we’ve had within the final one or two years is a sudden upsurge within the variety of Nigerians eager to journey. We felt it was additionally associated to COVID-19,” he mentioned
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