140,000 international passport booklets yet to claimed – NIS

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) says no fewer than 140,000 international passport booklets are yet to be claimed at its issuing offices across the country.

The service expressed worry over the trend, stressing that Nigerians blame the them for not meeting their needs for the essential travel document.

Isah Jere, NIS Comptroller General who make the announcement on Wednesday in Lagos, cited that communication challenges and the use of third party agents to apply for international passports are the major factors for the increasing number of unclaimed passports.

Jere spoke through an Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) in the Migration Directorate of the service, Abdullahi Usman, head of a committee on unclaimed passports nationwide.

The NIS boss said efforts to reach the applicants for the 140,000 unclaimed passports had become difficult due to either wrong or incomplete information supplied by third party players or contact details.

Speaking during a fact-finding visit to the Alausa Passport Office and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, both in Ikeja, Usman advised applicants who have either lost their slips or forgotten their appointment dates to check Immigration offices where they applied to pick up their passports, while also urged passport applicants to shun the use of third parties.

Usman said: “Why we are here is a directive from the Comptroller General. He has observed that there are a lot of uncollected passports in all the passport offices. We have about 100,000 unclaimed passports. Apart from that, we still have about 40,000 passports produced recently, all unclaimed.

“This thing is causing us a worry because once you’ve done your own bit and people have not collected it, it causes a worry. It’s based on this that we are not there yet. That is why the CGI set up the committee to make sure the unclaimed passports are clearly given to the owners.

“Again, we came into the field and were able to understand why some were not claimed. What are the reasons we have done the passports and collection has not happened? Before, production was the issue, due to various factors. But now, it is no longer an issue; collection has become the issue now.

“The reason passports are not collected is due to unreliable data: the addresses are incomplete, phone numbers and emails, which are used to quickly reach applicants, are usually not correct. So, communication cannot take place with the applicants, hence no feedback.

“This is because the third party uses his or her own phone number and email address. So, we cannot communicate with the applicants directly to tell them their passports are ready.”