3000 Unclaimed Passports in Ekiti, Says NIS
By Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has lamented the rising number of unclaimed passport booklets in its custody across the country.
The Assistant Comptroller General of NIS in charge of Land border, ACG Emmanuel Fagbamigbe who stated this in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, revealed that about 3,000 passport booklets are lying in the state Command unclaimed.
Fagbamigbe who described the situation as alarming called on the owners to urgently visit the NIS headquarters in the state to collect the passports they applied for.
The ACG who explained that he was in the state to sensitize people on the collection of the passports noted that the scenario was not peculiar to Ekiti as the situation is the same in other parts of the country.
The NIS boss who was speaking in the presence of the top management team of Ekiti state Command, led by Abdulrasheed Ademola said over 1000 owners of the unclaimed passports have been called on phone to come and collect their booklets since he arrived the state.
He said, ” Overtime, we have accumulation of passport booklets produced but are yet to be collected by the owners and we don’t want things to continue this way. If action like this is not taken, they will assume that the passports are not ready but they are ready and available for collection.
“The Federal Ministry of Interior, and NIS are doing their best to make it ready at the right time but applicants are not coming to collect it, probably it is due to ignorance or they forgot they applied for it.
“So there is accumulation of unclaimed passport booklets in our commands across the country not only in Ekiti State. We have about 3000 passports yet to be collected and this is alarming for a state as small as ours and so we decided that something must be done. The passports are available, if not, we wouldn’t have produced the 3000 unclaimed ones.
” We have started calling them on phone to come and collect it and it is yielding results and we shall continue calling them.
“We don’t want a situation whereby they will be misinforming the public that after months of their application and capturing their passports are still not ready. We want to use this medium to tell them that they are ready and they should come for it now”.
ACG Fagbamigbe who noted that passport applied for only take six weeks to be ready while renewal takes just three weeks to be available wondered why the owners shy away from collecting them as scheduled.
“Even in a metropolitan state like Lagos, we have between 15,000 and 19,000 unclaimed passport booklets. Our office are jam-packed with the booklets, let them come and pick them up. This is to sensitize them and ensure we reach out to them. Though passports are government properties but the applicants are the owners, since they paid for it”.
On why they employed calling owners of unclaimed passports directly as strategy, Fagbamigbe said it has been found to be the most effective measure unlike when they were sending short messages to them.
“We are taking this strange measure to address the strange situation at hand, when we see how far this strategy can help us, then we will know how or what to do next. But I believe we are doing the best thing”.
He commended the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the Comptroller- General of the service, Mr Isah Idris Jere for approving the sensitization and for persistently ensuring seamless procurement of passports.
