The federal government through the Nigeria Immigration
Service (NIS) has extended the suspension of applications for passport booklets
by one week.
The NIS said in a statement on Tuesday that the
applications, which was scheduled to resume on June 1, will now commence on
June 8.
The service had, on May 18, suspended fresh requests for
booklets to enable passport issuing centres to clear existing backlog of
applications by May 31.
Amos Okpu, its spokesman, said in the statement that the
service is battling congestion at its issuing centres because of the huge
number of applicants turning up to collect their passport booklet.
“This situation will not allow the Service to accommodate
new applications especially considering our desire to ensure that people who
come to our offices comply with all the COVID-19 protocols,” he said.
“Consequent upon the above, the Minister of Interior, Rauf
Aregbesola, has extended the commencement of the new passport regime earlier
scheduled for June 1, 2021 by one week till June 8, 2021.
“The Comptroller General of Immigration assures all of full
commitment to improved service delivery to all passport applicants and others.”
“Passport Control Officers have been directed to continue to
send out short message notifications for collection to all applicants who
indicated functional contact details/numbers in their applications while
efforts have been intensified to clear up the remaining applications in some
Centres.”
The initial suspension was announced following the
difficulty many Nigerians were facing in getting their requested booklets.
The contractors in charge of the
passport booklets were not able to source for forex from official sources and
had to resort to the parallel market.
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