THE comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Kemi Nandap, has said that 107,646 produced passports remained uncollected across its offices nationwide.
She disclosed this in a statement issued by the NIS Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Udo, on Friday, May 31 in Abuja.
According to her, efforts by the NIS to contact owners of the available passports have not yielded results.
“Applicants are therefore strongly advised to always provide verifiable addresses and phone numbers when filling their online passport application forms for easy contact, “ Nandap said.
She urged applicants whose passports have been produced to go for pick-up at the various Passports Issuing Centres across the country.
To address the issue, the NIS boss said she had directed that all passport offices in Lagos operate on Saturdays between 9 am to 2 pm.
This is to enable NIS officials to attend to only the applicants coming for the collection of their produced passports, Nandap said. “Therefore, those concerned are hereby informed to take advantage of this opportunity.”
The Immigration boss’ disclosure came as the service is expected to start delivering passports to applicants’ homes.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who oversees the activities of the NIS, on May 25 directed the NIS to start home delivery of passports to Nigerians effective from June this month.
The home delivery is to begin in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Abuja, as directed by the minister.
The initiative was supposed to have commenced in February, however, some bottlenecks hindered the move according to the minister.
The ICIR in an earlier report showed how difficult it is to get passport as some bad eggs in the NIS are involved in passport racketeering, making Nigerians wait for months to get their passport booklets.