TheCable

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says there are 7,500 travel passports awaiting collection at its Oyo state offices.

Dora Amahian, assistant comptroller-general in charge of planning and statistics, said this in Ibadan on Wednesday.

Amahian said some of the passports have been produced since 2020 but the owners are yet to pick them up.

The assistant comptroller-general said the NIS had been sending text messages to the applicants as only a few of them responded to the calls.

Amahian lamented that some applicants submitted the wrong phone numbers.

“We have about 7,500 uncollected passports in Oyo State and we do not want them to expire in our hands because if they do, applicants will have to pay money for fresh applications,’’ she said.

“In times past, there had been unpalatable comments about how applicants were made to wait endlessly for passport issuance.

“We want to tell you that NIS has been issuing passports but people don’t come to pick them up.’’

She appealed to those who had applied for passports in the last six to nine months in Oyo state to pick up their passports.

Amahian assured Nigerians that passports would be issued to fresh applicants within six weeks, while renewals would be done in three weeks.