According to an announcement made by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), at least 140,000 international passports are still unclaimed across the country.
Goldennewsng reports that Tony Akuneme, a spokesperson for the NIS, approximately 40,000 of the total 140,000 are located in the Alausa passport office in Ikeja.
He explained that most of the passports that hadn’t been picked up had wrong phone numbers and addresses that couldn’t be found.
Akuneme urged applicants to process their international passports independently, without the involvement of racketeers, and with the correct information.
He stated to NAN: Some Nigerians still use racketeers or consultants to process their passports, which typically does not work out well, despite the extensive awareness campaign launched by NIS regarding passport application and procedures.
“Some applicants are gullible; they were duped out of their hard-earned money by touts.”
Akuneme urged applicants who applied for passports prior to July 2022 but were unsuccessful to go to the NIS website to file complaints.
