Nigerians apply for passports with fake phone numbers — Controller

The outgoing Controller of Passports of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Kwara State, Alhaji Baba Aliyu, has called on the federal government to sanction applicants who are yet to collect their international passports. Aliyu, who disclosed this in Ilorin on the sidelines of a retirement party held in his honour on Monday, said 3,000 […]

The outgoing Controller of Passports of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Kwara State, Alhaji Baba Aliyu, has called on the federal government to sanction applicants who are yet to collect their international passports.

Aliyu, who disclosed this in Ilorin on the sidelines of a retirement party held in his honour on Monday, said 3,000 passports were yet to be collected by applicants in the Kwara State office of NIS.

He said, “A number of the applicants from Kwara and other parts of Nigeria cannot be contacted on the phone numbers provided in their applications.

“We usually send SMS through the contact phone numbers provided by the applicants but some messages don’t go through due to the fact that the numbers are fake.

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“Some applicants might have died, while others may refuse to collect it because they could not meet up with what they wanted to use it for.

“Whatever the reasons may be, passports should not be abandoned, as they serve a lot of functions besides being travelling documents.”

He, therefore, urged applicants to visit immigration offices to collect their passports.

He also urged Nigerians seeking to acquire the international passport to visit the website of NIS to apply, noting that it took just two weeks to acquire the passport, as well as renew an expired one.