In Kwara Command, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has revealed that there are 3,000 international passports waiting to be collected by applicants.

Alhaji Baba Aliyu, the outgoing Comptroller of Passports in the Command, made this disclosure during a retirement party held in his honor in Ilorin, speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Aliyu called on the Federal Government to impose sanctions on these individuals, noting that many of the applicants could not be reached through the phone numbers provided in their applications.

“We usually send SMS messages to the contact addresses and phone numbers given by the applicants, but some of them failed to receive the messages because the numbers provided are fake,” Aliyu explained.

He further stated, “Some applicants may have passed away, while others may have chosen not to collect their passports because they did not meet their intended purposes for acquiring them. Regardless of the reasons, passports should not be abandoned as they serve many functions apart from being travel documents.”

The Comptroller of Passports clarified that the abandoned passports were not only from individuals in Kwara State but from applicants across different parts of Nigeria.

Aliyu urged applicants to visit the Immigration Office and collect their passports.

Additionally, he encouraged Nigerians who wish to obtain international passports to visit the immigration.gov.ng website for the application process, highlighting that it takes just two weeks to acquire a new passport or renew an expired one.