NIS warns racketeers as passport portal reopens

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has called on passport applicants to abstain from patronising touts, stating that the process has been made seamless for effective service delivery.

Babandede also warned passport racketeers and defaulting officers within the service to desist from practices capable of undermining the reform of NIS.

He declared this while announcing the reopening of the passport applications and payment portal.

The Public Relations Officer of NIS, Amos Okpu, made this known on Tuesday in a statement entitled, ‘Reopening of passport application portal.’

The statement read, “The passport application portal will be reopened effective June 8, 2021 by midnight to allow eligible passport applicants to apply and make payments for the various categories of passports of their choice.

“The passport portal was closed following the directives of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on May 17, 2021 to allow the service to clear all backlogs of applications that have piled up across Issuing Centres in the past few months.”

As indicated by the statement, under the new passport regime, applications and payments for passport services shall be made through the service’s website.

The statement further said, “Upon successful applications, applicants shall make their online booking interview/enrolment appointment on any day, time and location they consider convenient.

“That the new timeline for passport production and issuance after a successful enrolment at the selected issuing centre shall be six weeks for fresh applications and three weeks for re-issue (renewal applications).”