October 04, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), on Tuesday, confirmed that all the 204,332 passport application backlogs have been cleared.
THEWILL recalls that Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, had on Thursday, September 7, ordered the NIS to clear over 200,000 backlog of passports in two weeks.
The ultimatum came in line with Dr. Tunji-Ojo’s earlier charge to the agency to remove “bottlenecks in the acquisition of passports and other immigration documents” and his assurance to Nigeria.
“The entire passport backlogs in the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has been cleared after a directive from the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. Update as at 1st October, 2023; total backlogs 204,332, total backlogs cleared 204,332,” the NIS said on Tuesday, in an updated information obtained by THEWILL.
Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, DCI Adedotun Aridegbe, confirmed the development.
Aridegbe disclosed that immediately after the Minister gave the order to clear the backlogs of passport applications, Acting CG of Immigration, Adepoju Carol, constituted a task force to ensure that the directive was carried out to the letter.
“Our passport offices all over the country have never rested one day, so as to clear all backlogs. In fact, they run shifts. Lagos is peculiar with three shifts just to make sure that the directive of the Minister is actualised.
“This was facilitated by the task force inaugurated by the acting CG. We are all working. We have cleared almost all the backlog. In fact, the era of backlog is gone,” he said.
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