(NAN) Minister of Interior wey be Rauf Aregbesola tok say no passport booklet shortage for Naija, becos Federal Government don clear all backlogs of passport applications. Na the Minister’s Media Adviser wey be Mr Sola Fasure yarn dis one on Tuesday inside Abuja. Him yarn say the ministry don make efforts to make sure say passports dey available for Naija pipu.
“In 2021 alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians and today, no booklet shortage in Nigeria.
“For the second quarter of 2022, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) don provide 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications wey dey receive.
“Becos say we wan address the challenge of the backlog, we don send 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centres for inside Lagos State.
“We don also send enuf booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this Mata,” na wetin the minister yarn.
He also yarn say dem don send 10,000 passport booklets to the new Port Harcourt passport production centre, to make sure say people fit collect passport for dat area.
The minister tok say the centre go dey responsible for passport demands from Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa.
Aregbesola tok say with these efforts, no excuse again for delays and say people no fit get dia passports within the time wey dem suppose get am across the country.
The minister say make pipu wey want passport apply online to avoid wayo people.
“I will urge applicants for the Nigerian passport to apply early enough before their travel date, e go helep dem apply well.
“E dey important also make dey apply by themselves through the NIS portal and not through touts and wayo officials, wey dey cause wahala,” na wetin him tok.
Aregbesola tok say dem don provide six weeks and three weeks window for fresh application and renewal respectively once you don do biometric data capture. Within this window, the passport go don ready.
“This timeline go helep NIS to chook eyes and make sure say wetin the applicants fill na true.
“Na the reasonable provision (standard) to give out passport be dat. Nothing like wait-and-get passport service anywhere in the world,” na wetin the minister yarn.
He explain say, to add to the standardised timeline, the NIS don introduce a tracking mechanism to help applicants to monitor the progress of their application.
“We dey also introduce data capture centres all over Naija before the end of 2022, so pipu no go dey meet NIS officials,”
Him promise say Federal Government go continue to introduce necessary ways so pipu go fit get dia passport.
