ILORIN: The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Kwara State Command has said that about 180 international passports are yet to be collected from the Ilorin office of the service. This was made known by the controller of NIS in the state, Aminu Shamsuddin in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin on the sidelines of idle passports that are yet to be collected by their owners.

He explained that most of the uncollected passports belonged to people that are not resident in the state, he added that they find it difficult to come and collect their documents. He noted that some people were afraid to visit the office because of the procedure of involved by activating their passports, through thumb printing to show the full details of the owner.

“Some people are so busy to create time and come for the collections, preferring to send someone, which is no longer accepted by the service, because of the importance of the document.

“All applicants of international passports must apply by themselves, to prevent spelling error and be present for biometric capturing and collection,” adding that the procedure has changed, as it requires “applying online, through immigration website, and visit state office for capturing and collection, “he said.

Shamsuddin however said that people that were yet to collect their passports had been contacted through the phone numbers they filled in their application forms and expressed high hope that they would turn-up to collect their documents

“Each time we call the applicants, they usually give excuse that they do not have time to come for collections but promised to come soon. pointing out that very soon, more than half of the passports would have been collected due to available information,” he said.

He explained that international passport is beyond travelling purpose and urged Nigerians to process theirs, for means of identification, opening bank accounts, guarantor purpose, acquiring loan and much more.

He said that the NIS in the state would upscale its sensitisation programme by visiting higher institutions, media houses and distribution of pamphlets in order to create awareness on the need for citizens to acquire international passports.