FG names 8,611 Nigerians with uncollected passports

The Federal Government has published the names of 8,611 Nigerians who are yet to collect their issued passports from the Nigeria Immigrations offices across Nigeria.

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Interior, revealed the names on its website with the link shared on its official Twitter handle. This was also retweeted by the minister, Rauf Aregbesola, on Thursday morning.

Sunday PUNCH had earlier reported that the Nigeria Immigration Service said over 148,000 passports were awaiting collection nationwide since 2020.

The NIS Public Relations Officer, Anthony Akuneme, also noted that the NIS could not reach the owners, some of whom input incorrect contact details at the point of registration.

He revealed that the Comptroller-General, Isa Idris, had deployed a team of senior officers nationwide to reach the owners of the abandoned passports.

However, he said that passports whose owners could not be reached at the end of the exercise would not be destroyed as they remain the property of the Federal Government.

Meanwhile, the ministry in the tweet further called on Nigerians whose names were published to visit the passport office to pick up theirs.

The tweets read, “List of all produced Nigerian Passports worldwide that remains uncollected. If you find your name, proceed to the passport office to pick up yours.”

The PUNCH observed that the list consists of data like surname, first name, other name, passport number and production date.