The Federal Government has established ten passport processing centres and Turned around the entire passport application process by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to six weeks.
The reason is to ensure seamless and transparent process and give human dignity to applicants and fulfil citizenship integrity, in line with the mandate of the Ministry of Interior.
The Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari announced various steps on Thursday to counter passport shortage and racketeering by Immigration officials and their associates at the country’s passport offices.
The government announced that ten special passport centres would open in the coming weeks to expedite the processing of booklets, to have one in each local government, university campuses, institutions of higher learning, and other locations.
After a meeting with the Comptroller-General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede, and passport control officers in Abuja, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said undercover operatives wearing body cameras would be deployed in all passport offices to detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, and hoarding.
As previously reported in a special report by skynewslink Nigeria has been racketeering and bribery at passport offices, as well as Nigerians’ failure to procure the booklets they paid for. Aregbesola confirmed the condition, stating that the passport process had been hampered by a lack of booklets, touting, racketeering, cost inflation, and the issuance of passports to disqualified people. “We are going to embed security operatives – seen and unseen – in all our passport offices,” the minister said.
They’ll be outfitted with body cameras. Solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding, and other corrupt practices will all be detected and reported. “Those who are apprehended will be prosecuted following the law. A police ombudsman will be established to collect complaints and reports from members of the public about officers who attempt to deviate from prescribed procedures and subvert the process.”
Babandede stated that from January 2020 to the present, 976,483 passports have been issued to Nigerians at home and abroad, with efforts underway to clear the backlog of 244,336.
