The Nigeria Immigration Service has encouraged Nigerians who have applied for and have not yet picked up their international passports to go to the passport offices because the backlog has been cleared.
The Guardian reported that this information was provided in an exclusive interview with a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration and the Immigration spokesman, Dotun Aridegbe, “The days of passport backlog are now over,” he emphasized.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has been given a mandate by the interior minister, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to process the backlog of more than 200,000 pending passport applications within two weeks.
This instruction was made during a meeting between the minister and the acting controller general of NIS, Caroline Adepoju, shortly after she assumed office in Abuja.
The Managing Director of Iris Smart Technologies, the company in charge of creating the booklets for Nigerian passports, Mr. Yinka Fisher, also attended the meeting.
The minister’s directive was in keeping with his pledge to remove all barriers to the acquisition of Nigerian passports and other immigration documents.
The Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Mrs. Carol Adepoju Wura-Ola, activated a full-scale implementation team inside the NIS hierarchy to carry out the minister’s instruction, and they were remarkably successful.
“Please assist us in telling applicants whose passports are lying in various passport offices across the nation to go pick up their passports,” pleaded Aridegbe. To guarantee our candidates’ happiness, we are working nonstop.”
After taking office in August, the Interior Minister gave the Nigeria Immigration Service a mandate to make sure the backlog of over 200,000 passports is cleared within two weeks.
In an interview, the Minister stated that having a passport is “a right, not a privilege.”
Additionally, he pledged to remove any obstacles to the manufacturing and issuing of passports for Nigerians residing in Nigeria and abroad.
