As part of efforts to ease the issuance of the new enhanced e- passports launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 15, the Ikoyi passport office said it had begun operations on issuance of the enhanced e-passports.
The Passport Control Officer (PCO), Ikoyi Passport Control office, Mr Mannir Yari, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.
The Officer said this while clarifying on the Saturday operations embarked on by the office and the new enhanced e- passport to guide Nigerians.
He emphasised that the Saturday operations for collection of passports happened any week the office had mass production and poor attendance for collection.
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“Then the office created Saturday operations so that the applicants that could not collect on work days can come to pick their passports.
“The Saturday chosen for the collection is appropriately communicated to the applicants,” the PCO said.
According to him the measure was to facilitate a seamless and systematic transition from the previous passport issuance programme to the new one.
Yari said that in order to also ensure effective administration, the office alongside the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) service headquarters in Abuja were the offices to issue the enhanced e- passports at the moment.
The PCO also said all the backlogs of old passports had been produced thereby calling on the applicants to visit the collection unit to collect their passports.
NAN reports that during the launch of the enhanced e-passport at the Presidential Villa, the Comptroller General of the NIS, Mr Mohammad Babandede had explained in detail what the enhanced passport entailed.
“These include being weather friendly, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) compliant, presence of polycarbonate technology that eliminates damage, and enhanced security features.
“It will also save Nigerians in the Diaspora the time of frequent visits to Nigerian Embassy among others,” Yari quoted Babandede as saying at the launch.
The PCO said where there was no issue, the new enhanced e- passport was issued in less than five days at Ikoyi passport office.
He emphasised that the only new requirement in addition to previous requirements “is the presentation of National Identification Number (NIM) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“Many applicants are not aware of the NIN prerequisite and such applicants had trooped to the passport office without the NIN.
“Some even processed the NIN with incorrect information that are at variance with details on their passports; these issues cause delay and raise issues that are not from passport issuance.”
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The PCO also said the office was equipped with good 24-hour customer service.
An applicant who spoke to NAN, on condition of anonymity, commended the centre for having an orderly manner for collection of NIN and processing of e-passport at the centre.
She said she was elated to have been called that her enhanced e-passport was ready.
The applicant, however advised the federal government that since NIMC and NIS were partnering for issuance of enhanced e-passport, there was the need to have NIMC in all local governments of the federation,
An octogenarian, Mr Abas Adegunna, however, said it would be good if the federal government removed National Identity Card as a compulsory requirement to access the country’s international passport. (NAN)
