The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has cleared 190,749 passports application backlogs following the directive of the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo four weeks ago.
According to information from the Minister’s office in Abuja, the NIS now has about 13,583 pending applications before it.
The backlogs cleared were as of September 27th.
The update does not however include applications filed by Nigerians within the past four weeks as the Immigration offices nationwide continued to attend to request of renewals of expired passports and those applying for fresh booklets everyday.
Our correspondent however gathered that the Minister has promised to keep a close watch on the operations of the NIS to prevent a recurrence of backlogs of applications due to deliberate human activities.
Dr Tunji-Ojo also said he would ensure eliminations of human interactions in the processes to stamp out corruption while technology would be deployed to hasten the processes of procurement of the booklets.