Senate To Probe NIS Over Delay In Passport issuance, renewal
The Senate Committee on Interior has expressed readiness to investigate issuance of Nigeria passport and the circumstances leading to the delay in its renewal by the Nigerian Immigration Services.
The Upper Chamber has also given two weeks to the committee to investigate the contract award for the production of passports.
The Senate’s resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by the senator representing Anambra Central, Uche Ekwunife on the “Delay on issuance, renewal of Nigeria International Passport” by the Nigerian Immigration Services at plenary on Tuesday.
Ekwunife disclosed that the delay in the renewal of Nigeria’s passport by the NIS has inflicted untold hardships on Nigerians who need to travel out of the country or return to the country.
She said, “The passport is an official identity document issued to Nigerians for the purpose of travelling out and into the country in exercise of their rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement.
“Many Nigerians are still facing challenges with passport processing, despite the six-week timeline of processing passports given by the Federal Government barely a year ago.”
She lamented that new applicants and those who want to renew their passports spend between three and six months to process their application at the offices of the Nigerian Immigration Services and Nigeria embassies outside the country.
She added, “Getting an appointment for biometric capturing at the passport offices now takes between five and eight weeks, while it takes many applicants four months waiting for their passports to be ready for collection after the biometric exercise.
“It has also become extremely difficult for passports to be processed across the entire Nigeria Immigration offices in different states, especially Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.”
This, she noted, was forcing the applicants to travel to various locations to get their passports renewed.
“The international students are also finding it very difficult to renew their passports to enable them to travel back to reunite with their families,”
Similarly, Gershom Bassey (PDP-Cross-River), who seconded the motion, expressed concern that the idea of delay in the issuance of passports was almost becoming a controversy and not in the best interest of Nigerians.
Corroborating her colleagues, Biodun Olujumi (PDP-Ekiti) said the motion was timely, saying that it was important to resolve the issue as that was not the situation in the past when passports were issued within two to three days.
In his comments, Adamu Bulkachuwa (PDP-Bauchi), however, said the motion had come too late as the matter should have been presented earlier before the Senate.
Bulkachuwa said, “I had experienced a similar delay when I applied for a renewal of my passport as Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.”
According to him, it took five weeks for him to be issued his passport after his biometric exercise.
The Senate, also in its other resolution on the motion, mandated its committee to investigate the contract award for the printing of passports.
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