The Federal Government has directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to retrieve with immediate effect all valid diplomatic and official passports from all persons who are not authorised to hold such documents.
Nigerian passports
Yusuf Isiaka, the director of press federal ministry of interior said this in a statement issued in Abuja, on Monday, August 24, NAN reports.
Isiaka said: “The Permanent Secretary, Mr Abubakar Magaji, Federal Ministry of Interior, has directed the Nigeria Immigration Service to retrieve all valid diplomatic and official passports with immediate effect from all persons who are not entitled to hold such documents.”
Further in the statement, the press director said: “The attention of the Federal Government has been drawn to the fact that some Nigerians who are not entitled to hold diplomatic and official passports are in possession of these documents,”
According to the statement, the measure is intended to protect and promote Nigeria’s integrity in the comity of nations in addition to ensuring law and order.
Meanwhile, about 12 close aides of former president Goodluck Jonathan were stripped of their official passports three weeks ago. It is yet to be ascertained if the presidency ordered the affected officials to surrender the passports or if they did so voluntarily.
The decision to withdraw the official passports of the former aides of Jonathan was to prevent misuse and conflict with new aides and officials of President Muhammadu Buhari, who took over power on May 29, 2015, Vanguard had reported.
No comments:
Post a Comment