Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo yesterday in Abuja announced a two-week timeline for the processing of passport applications, saying the era of Nigerians waiting for months to get their international passports was over.

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He gave the assurance at a media parley to review his directive to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) where he ordered them to clear over 204,000 backlog of passport applications.

Tunji-Ojo who apologised profusely to Nigerians that the clearance of the backlog spilled into three weeks, as against the two weeks deadline he initially gave the service, praised officers and men of the NIS for working day and night, including weekends and public holidays, to meet with his directive.

He promised that, by December, applicants will be able to upload their passports photographs online with specifications and with their supporting documents, rather than go the Immigration officers for capturing.

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He said, “When you apply for a visa, you do that and we are advancing in that line. Also, your supporting documents should be uploaded online too. We don’t want the past situation whereby people spend the whole day at the passport offices.”

The minister explained that while procurement of visas is a privilege, acquiring international passports is a right, hence, the commitment of President Bola Tinubu  not to increase the cost of passport application in spite of the foreign exchange volatility.

According to him, “The Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu is one that matches its words with actions. The issue of passports must be a fight and not a privilege. Visa is a privilege but passport is a right and we are happy that, today, we have been able to hand over the rights of Nigerians to them.

“For us, we are assured that if it can work in NIS, it can work anywhere else. Nigeria is undergoing a process.

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“We inherited 204,332 enrolments without passports being issued. People that had applied and captured. That was the figure and we gave marching orders because the president was also on our necks to bring solutions and succour to Nigerians.

“We want to ensure that nobody waits for more than two weeks to get their passports. As of October 1, we had cleared all the 204,332 backlogs and from the records produced by NIS, the number of passports already collected is 91,981. Outstanding but available is 112,351.”

The minister,  who pleaded with Nigerians to go and collect their passports, warned against giving of money to  anybody, saying, ” If there is any passport office where you have done your capturing and they do not give you your passports, please lodge your complaints via the following; 0802 375 3414, preferably SMS and Whatsapp. Or email [email protected]

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He warned that he would not allow the attitude of a very negligible fraction of NIS officers cast aspersions on the work of the majority of good officers.

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