By Tola Gbadamosi

|

Passport Control Officer, Ondo State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Mr Kehinde Bayode has assured residents of the state, that the era of queueing endlessly to get passports is gone.

Mr Bayode gave the assurance while speaking on the reduction in queues at the Immigration office in Akure.

Recall that the Minister of Interior, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo had last week, charged the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, Adepoju Carol Wura-Ola to come up with measures to decongest passport collection centres, saying President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration will not tolerate excuses and endless queues at passport offices.

At the meeting, the minister also charged heads of service arms of the ministry on the need to walk their talk as the country is at a critical point and in dire need of transformation, adding that the president is interested in tangible results and not excuses.

The minister, however, hinted that the implementation of advanced technological solutions could significantly reduce delays and streamline the handling of critical challenges.

“Technology has the potential to revolutionize our immigration and correctional systems, making them more agile and responsive.”

Speaking further, the Command’s Passport Control Officer, disclosed, that between August and now, the Command has cleared all backlogs of Passports totalling 8,153.

This followed the directive of the Minister of Interior, that the Acting Comptroller-General of Immigration should devise means of decongesting passport collection centres across the country.

“I want to use this medium to urge residents of the state who want to apply for a passport to start coming, assuring that the process at the moment is less cumbersome.”

“No one will have to queue endlessly before such applicant will be attended to. The newly adopted innovations have made the process less stressful.”

“So, I want to assure that henceforth, there won’t be endless queues at the passport collection Centre, so interested applicants should endeavour to approach our office for their passport issuance”, he stated.