Kenny Folarin, Abuja
The Federal Government has said that at least 45,000 passport booklets are yet to be collected by applicants at the various Nigeria Immigration Service enrolment centres worldwide.
This is coming as the government extends the deadline for clearing passport backlog initially slated for Monday, 31 May, 2021 by one week. The date for the beginning of the new passport regime is now Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
At a review meeting with the management of the Service, it was however revealed that 230,000 passport booklets have been produced so far and members of the public enjoined to visit their enrolment centres for collection.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who chaired the meeting, noted that the Government will not stop on its oars in making booklet shortage a thing of the past.
“We extended the deadline for clearing of backlogs by one week, because we found out many were yet to collect their passports which had already been produced. The new Passport Regime will now begin on June 8,” Aregbesola stated.
According to the Public Relations’ Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Sunday James, 45,000 passport booklets are yet to be collected across the world. He noted that though text messages have been sent to applicants who are yet to pick up their passports, their names have been published on the service official website via: https://immigration.gov.ng/uncollected-passports/
“Members of the public are enjoined to visit their enrolment centre to pick up their passports. Efforts are also ongoing to paste the list at each enrolment centre, however, there are concerns on Covid-19 so that protocols put in place by Nigeria and other host nations are not bridge,” Sunday noted while addressing the press.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had at a meeting with Passport Control Officers and Attaches of the Service from across the world on April 22 rejigged the Passport Application Processing by announcing sweeping reforms.
However, before the beginning of the new passport processing regime, a promise was made to Nigerians to clear all passport backlog