Passport: Beware Of Fraudulent Officers, Aregbesola Warns Nigerians

The minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola has warned Nigerians looking for speedy, unreasonable means to obtain the Nigeria International passport to desist from such act or risk falling into the hands of fraudulent officials.

Aregbesola, who gave the warning when he inaugurated a new passport office in Oyo Town, Oyo State said intending travellers need to plan their journey ahead of time to save themselves from avoidable delay.

He said the rationale behind building another passport office in Oyo State was that the Nigerian government intends to give citizens seamless access to the travel document, since the only office in the state, located in Ibadan, could no longer meet the demands of applicants across the thirty-three Local Government Areas of the state.

Emphasising the need for more passport offices to meet the ever growing demands for the document, the minister expressed the readiness of the Government to go into private partnership.

Aregbesola disclosed that the Nigeria Immigration Service was also poised to clear the backlog of passport applications which was partly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The chairman, Oyo Metropolitan Development Association, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, promised that the community would continue to see the project as its own by giving necessary support.

Ladigbolu, who traced the history of the passport office to year 2016, recalled the roles played by the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, to make the project a reality.

He said this testified to the relevance of traditional rulers in the socioeconomic development at the grassroots.

The minister was welcomed to Oyo Town by the quarter guard of the Nigeria Immigration Service and was also received by top officials of sister agencies, as well as indigenes and eminent personalities in the town.