Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, the interior minister, reported on Tuesday that 55,000 of the backlog of 200,000 passports had been eliminated.
After the backlogs are cleared, Nigerians should be able to get their passports in two weeks, he stated, adding that more would be cleared before the end of the two weeks the immigration chief had been given.
Credible News reports that When Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, visited his office in Abuja, he gave a speech. Afonja Ajibola, the Ministry of Interior’s Director of Press, said this in a statement.
Nigerians must not lose their status as Nigerian citizens by being denied passports, he argued.
“He restated his conviction that we must act immediately, adding that he receives information every morning and that, as of this morning, he has been informed that around 55,000 of the 200,000 backlogs of passports he commanded to be cleared in two weeks have been cleared.
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“He then assured that by the time the backlogs are cleared, Nigerians will start enjoying the efficient service of having their passports issued within two weeks upon application.”
Speaking, Edu offered soft loans to the widows of deceased members of the Federal Fire Service, Immigration Service, Nigerian Prisons Service, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
She further pledged that skill development programmes would empower prisoners in the correctional facilities.
“The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Beta Edu, said her Ministry’s Mandate has been expanded to cover more Nigerians, who number roughly 16 million and are vulnerable to the insecurity that could result in their displacement and consequently cause humanitarian crises,” she said.
Additionally, she stated that her ministry is prepared to step in and provide for the widows of slain NSCDC, jail officers, men and officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and Fire Service officers through the granting of soft loans. She claims that through a skills development programme, inmates at correctional facilities will begin to benefit from comparable intervention.
She added that she would also focus on the Federal Fire Service since it is a Ministry-supervised organisation that also handles disaster response and that the NSCDC’s role in security intelligence will also be activated as part of the collaborative collaboration.
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