The Nigerian passport
NIS: Ikoyi Passport Office extends workdays to weekends
Ikoyi Office of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Lagos, said it has extended its working days to include Saturdays and Sundays to meet the demands of its applicants.
Passport Control Officer (PCO), Mr Ibrahim Liman, who disclosed this during an interview, Sunday in Lagos, added that the office also had issued no less than 15,000 passports to qualified applicants since his assumption of office in June 2021.
Liman, a Deputy Controller of Immigration (DCI), who explained these while reacting to series of complaints regarding passport racketeering and cases of uncleared backlogs of passports among others.
He said that his office would fish out and sanctioned offenders appropriately, said the Ikoyi office has extended its operational days to include Saturdays and Sundays in order to meet the demands of thousands of applicants who trooped in, into the office to obtain the documents.
He urged Nigerians to see beyond the fact that the passport is just a travelling document, saying it should be seen as a security document which would help them in many ways further stressing that his office was fully committed to efficient service delivery and it would not relent in justifying its operational mandate.
Liman while warning those who indulge in passport racketeering to desist from the act or face severe consequences, emphasised that his department had been working unrelentingly to meet the demands of applicants and adhering to due process required in obtaining it.
He explained that some challenges might hinder the timely release of some international passports to prospective applicants.
He said that this would be due to the need for discreet investigation to be conducted by the department on such applicants to determine their eligibility.
