The Nigeria Immigration Service has denied allegation of
shortage of passport booklets in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that there has been
complaints by some Nigerians over their inability to get the
passport booklets from the NIS.
An investigation carried out by a NAN correspondent at the NIS
headquarters in Abuja revealed that applicants were seen waiting to
collect their booklets.
Meanwhile, the NIS Public Relations Officer, Mr. Sunday James,
while denying the allegation on Tuesday, said that the large number
of applicants at the headquarters was the reason why the process
became cumbersome.
“The pressure at the headquarters is what people are amplifying
and not that there is any reality.
“The pressure is so enormous. Everybody wants to come to his
friend for passport and the Comptroller-General had insisted that
there shouldn’t be friendship in this passport business.
“Some Nigerians want it immediately and so they seek the
services of touts,” James said.
James told NAN that the passport was a document of the Federal
Government which was to be issued to qualified Nigerians, and as
such, there was no reason why citizens should not get the
booklet.
“If you know you are qualified, why should you look for somebody
to help you obtain it?
“This is what is causing this problem and they end up entering
into the wrong hands. We are discouraging this,” he said.
He noted that the Comptroller-General had directed that every
passport office in the country should be supplied with adequate
booklets.
“When we have people thronging the headquarters, even with the
workforce, you are going to overstretch them, not to talk of the
transition period where we are talking of migrating to the new
passport,” he said.
The spokesman explained that a lot of machines were being
installed and a lot of systems being put in place to ensure that
migrating to the new passport is feasible and without stress.
NAN reports that the service had said that it would begin
issuance of the new 10-year enhanced e-passport from April 29.
“The new passport will be integrated with the National Identity
Number.”
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on January 16, officially
launched the new e-passport.
The cost of the 32-page five-year standard passport stands at
N25,000, 64-page five-year standard passport, N35,000, while the
64-page 10-year standard passport costs N70,000 and the 32-page
five-year official passport is N15,000.
The new passport has enormous advantages which include ten year
validity, self-tracking application and express centers for urgent
application.
(NAN)