The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has revealed that the Nigeria Immigration Service is working diligently to deliver and have all outstanding passport applications issued by May 31.
The minister spoke at a virtual inaugural quarterly lecture series of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission dubbed , ‘Mobilising Nigerians in the Diaspora for National Development.’ which was monitored by Sunday PUNCH.
In his words: “The Nigeria Immigration Service also had their fair share of the pandemic which affected passport issuance. We have launched an electronic temporary passport to ease the burden of Nigerians.
“By May 31, all outstanding passport applications will be cleared. We are also looking at domesticating passport printing to avoid a shortage of booklets for renewal and new passport collection. Also, from June 1, the collection of passports will take six weeks and this will allow us to carry out due diligence.”
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, also addressed the audience and made it known it would soon be possible for diasporas to be able to cast their votes.
He said, “NIDCOM is working closely with the relevant committees of the National Assembly and relevant stakeholders, particularly INEC, to allow those in the diaspora to vote in Nigeria, and I remain very optimistic that in no distant future, we should be able to allow the participation of Nigerians in the diaspora in our national elections as obtained in other climes.
“INEC and the National Assembly are working to fashion out ways to actualise diaspora voting in Nigeria.” he added.
Source: www.NaijaOnPoint.com
