TheCable

The Ikoyi office of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says it has extended its workdays to include Saturdays and Sundays to meet the demands of passport applicants.

Ibrahim Liman, the passport control officer (PCO) in Ikoyi, disclosed this on Sunday, in an interview with NAN in Lagos, while reacting to complaints regarding passport racketeering and uncleared passport backlog.

Liman said the passport office has issued no less than 15,000 passports to qualified applicants since he assumed office in June 2021.

He also said the service has been working to meet the demands of applicants, and warned those involved in passport racketeering to desist from the act or face severe consequences.

He added that the service would fish out and sanction offenders appropriately.

Liman said some challenges might hinder the timely release of some international passports to prospective applicants.

The delay, he said, would be due to the need for discreet investigation to be conducted by the service on such applicants to determine their eligibility.

Liman emphasised that the NIS would not hesitate to discipline anyone found to be involved in defrauding applicants, or any illicit act capable of spoiling the name of the service.

“The service has recently introduced additional sophisticated measures toward checking attitudes inimical to the conduct of its official duties, especially, issues to do with corruption,” he said.

He appealed to applicants to always endeavour to visit the NIS Servicom department in all passport offices to make enquiries.

“NIS has reiterated that all qualified prospective seekers of the travel document should apply online,” he said.

“I especially appeal to prospective applicants to visit immigration.gov.ng which serves as the service website to apply and make payments for their passports.”