The Nation Newspaper

Tag: passport booklets

  • Scarcity of passport booklets hits immigration headquarters

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is experiencing shortage of passport booklets, it was learnt on Thursday.

    A woman, who spoke to The Nation under anonymity, complained she was at the NIS headquarters in Abuja but told at the passport operating unit only limited passports were available.

    She was also told that the limited ones are meant for the Very Important Personalities (VIP).

    She said: “It was surprising that I got to the NIS headquarters in Abuja and I was referred to Gwagwalada passport office or Kaduna State to purchase a passport booklet.

    READ ALSO: ‘Big men’ must go through security checks at airports, Immigration boss declares

    “One of the officers told me that the passport booklet is limited and the one available are for the VIPs.

    “I was disturbed because I needed it to travel urgently. I do not know that the passport booklets are scarce. I am disturbed.”

    It would be recalled that scarcity of passport booklets was experienced early last year due to production problem.

    All efforts to speak with the NIS spokesman, Sunday James were futile.

    He neither picked his calls nor replied to text message sent to him.

  • Immigration receives 50,000 passport booklets

    Immigration receives 50,000 passport booklets

    • Clearance of backlog begins 
    • Netherlands trains 20 senior officers

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has received a consignment of 50,000 passport booklets to address backlog estimated at 33,000 nationwide.

    Investigation revealed the passports were brought from Malaysia to the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja last week.

    Findings also indicated the Comptroller-General (CG) of NIS, Mohammed Babandede, has deployed a taskforce to Lagos to clear the backlog of passports in the state.

    This followed reports that thousands of Nigerians who applied for regular passports in the state were unable to access them after paying the mandatory fees for the documents.

    But a highly-placed source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent the special team would be deployed in Festac, Alausa and Ikoyi to clear the backlog of applications.

    It was gathered that the team is in Lagos from Abuja with adequate number of passports to satisfy demands and put touts operating in the passport offices out of business.

    The task force is also expected to resolve complaints from members of the public and recommend immigration personnel found wanting in the discharge of their duties for sanction.

    It was gathered the deployment of the team was informed by reports that some unscrupulous NIS officers and touts were creating artificial scarcity of passports in Lagos state.

    This, it was learnt, informed the removal of the officer in-charge of the Festac passport office about two weeks ago.

    However, the federal government has taken further steps to enhance security measures and efficiency in the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS).

    Twenty senior officers of the NIS have received specialised training on security, reception and treatment of visitors within and outside the country.

    The officers trained by officials from the Netherlands cut across the ranks of Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) to Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI).

    The officers are expected to replicate the training at zonal and command levels before proceeding to Netherlands for further training.

    Speaking with journalists at the NIS headquarters in Abuja, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Sunday James, said the programme was geared towards attitudinal change.

  • ‘No shortage of passport booklets’

    ‘No shortage of passport booklets’

    •Criticisms trail promotion of 16 ACGs 

    The Federal Government has said there is excess passport booklets for citizens intending to travel.

    This came yesterday amid concerns by some Nigerians about the difficulty in procuring international passports from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

    Minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau, who gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja, urged Nigerians not to panic.

    He spoke while decorating 16 newly-promoted Deputy Controller Generals and Deputy Commandant Generals of the NIS, Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    Addressing the new officers, the minister said: “You are aware that we have a lot challenges in our efforts towards reforms in your various services. In the Nigeria Immigration Service for instance, we have challenges in the issuance of passports but we have passports available and you must make sure that Nigerians get them.”

    He said the officers must ensure that they implement new policies, by government to the letter.

    DCG Immigration, Inusa Dauda Yahaya, who responded on behalf of the officers, pledged to deliver on the mandates of their new offices, urging the government not to hesitate in bringing them in line should they deviate from set objectives.

    Among others decorated are Lawal Rafiu, Usman Shehu Kangiwa, Adesoji Emmanuel Adeoye and Haruna Jega.

    But, complaints continued to trail the promotion of the 16 senior officers by the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIB).

    Five Assistant Comptrollers-General of Immigration were elevated to Deputy Comptrollers-General, five ACGs were promoted to DCGs in the civil defence and six ACGs were also elevated to DCGs in the prisons service.

    Sources alleged that the board did not follow due process and the laid down regulations during the promotion exercise.

    A source explained that most of the senior officers, who were eligible, were not invited for the promotion interview, describing the exercise as “tilted in favour of selected officials”.

    It was gathered that the board, which is chaired by Dambazau, simply handpicked some favoured candidates and issued letters of promotion while ignoring others who had spent over five years on their ranks.

    Another source told The Nation: “The board merely selected 16 favourite officials from the immigration service, civil defence and the prisons and promoted them to DCGs while ignoring over 80 other eligible officials across the services. They refused to invite all eligible officers for the promotion interview and this is a violation of the civil service procedure.”

    Findings by The Nation indicated that 28 ACGs in the immigration service were sidelined by the CDFIB and tens of others were also not considered in the three other para-military services.

    An aggrieved immigration officer, Daniel Makolo, had earlier dragged the board to the National Industrial Court over the refusal of the NIS to promote him for over 10 years.

  • Scarcity of passport booklets persists

    Scarcity of passport booklets persists

    •Travellers lament

    •NIS: they’re available 

    THE Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is now reeling in controversy over the shortage of 32-page passport booklets.
    It was gathered that travellers nationwide are finding it difficult purchasing the document as the agency saddled with the issuance is struggling to cope with demands. Reason: lack of sufficient stock.
    A highly placed source told The Nation that a stalemate on the review of the contract between the Federal Government and the company producing the travel document led to its scarcity.
    The source added that up till yesterday, the situation has not been resolved.
    The problem started since last year as the company that supplies passports demanded an upward review of the price Nigerians pay to obtain the document. But the government has not approved the proposal.
    The source said: “The sole supplier of the Nigerian passport sent the review request to the NIS in early 2016, arguing that the cost of producing Nigerian passports had gone up because of the poor exchange rate of naira to the dollar.
    “The company partially stopped supplying the 32-page passport booklets since the middle of last year, causing acute shortage in issuance.
    “Top management of the NIS made a recommendation to the government in March 2016 that the cost of issuing the passport be increased, but the government has not acted on the matter.”
    When The Nation visited the NIS headquarters in Abuja and its office in Gwagwalada, several applicants for the 32-page passport booklets were seen lamenting about the scarcity.
    Some of them told The Nation that their biometrics had been captured, adding that only few could get theirs, owing to the scarcity of the booklets.
    The sources said they were advised that applicants, who urgently need the passports, should apply for the 64-page passport booklets, which was available but cost more.
    The 64-page passport booklets were introduced in 2014 for frequent travellers, who usually filled up the 32-page passport booklets before its five-year expiration.
    The official costs of 64-page is N20,000 and the 32-page (N15, 000).
    NIS spokesman Sunday James, while reacting to the development, denied the shortage, insisting that the 32-page booklets were available for purchase.
    He said NIS Comptroller-General Mohammed Babandede is not resting on its oars at ensuring that passport booklets were available.
    James, in a statement issued a week ago, said: “The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has neither problem of shortage nor lack of passport booklets.
    “Last week alone, 10,000 booklets were shared to passport offices nationwide,” James said.
    He advised Nigerians to avoid patronising touts and always use the NIS passport offices across the country.
    In the heat of the controversy, James issued a statement explaining the scarcity of the 32-page passport and how the service had been working to ensure the availability of the documents as well as the 64-page passport booklets.
    It reads in part: “Nigerians are frequent travellers, high net worth business men and women and professionals with business links and professional assignments all over the world. The frequency of such travels necessitates quick exhaustion of the 32-page passport booklets. Hence, the wisdom of the NIS leadership to produce a 64-page passport, which takes care of frequent travellers and captures every other person that will need extra pages of passport for ease of travel.
    “Touts hanging around passport offices do more harm than good to the aspirations and desires of Nigerians in their efforts to get passports by intercepting prospective applicants outside the passport office areas or pretending to be a staff. Nigerians are advised to keep to the rule by dealing with no other person apart from those designated officers/men on schedule duty at our passport offices…
    “Let us sanitise the system together by reporting suspected cases to the passport officers in charge and also take advantage of the Immigration Service’s official online and social media platforms to make legitimate inquiries and reports.”
    But those who spoke with The Nation urged lasting solution to the problem.