By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Comptroller, Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS), Anambra State Command, Mrs Ngozi Odikpo, has harped on the need for customers to renew their passports not less than six months before the expiration date.

She said that failure to renew early would prevent the affected person from travelling with the passport.

According to her, there are some changes in passport issuance processes in the state immigration office, adding that in the next two weeks, their system would be configured to migrate to the appointment-based system in Anambra.

Odikpo who stated this while receiving the new executive of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra State Council, led by Dr Emeka Odogwu, wondered why people hardly visit their website to extract information, saying that all services were on the website.

While giving the domain address as immigration.gov.ng, she said: “All the information you need about us, our facilities and services are on our website. NIS has been adjudged as an institution with the most user-friendly website. We don't know why people do not access the website. People should always visit the website to be well informed.

“We are also ready to attend to all our customers during our customers service week which starts from Monday, February 14 to Friday, February 17, especially on the 16^th and 17^th.”

“Aside from issuance of passports, NIS, with its staff posted all over the local government areas, provides other services, including ECOWAS travelling and residency documents, undercover, surveillance and grassroots investigation.

“After you complete the online passport processing, you will generate an appointment date in which you will be attended to. It is a system configured. It does not depend on any officer. And anything outside that date, you will not be attended to unless approved from our head office,” she explained.

The Comptroller promised to partner with the NUJ for improved service delivery, noting that with the media, their clients would be well informed of their services and innovations.

“We are aware that collaboration with the media is essential in what we do. We know that with this partnership people will be clear in the area they are not sure of. We will do everything humanly possible to deliver on our mandate,” she added.

Earlier, the Chairman, NUJ, Anambra State Council, Dr Emeka Odogwu, called on the Anambra State government to liaise with the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to connect the State Command of Nigeria Immigration Services to national grid, as not doing so had impacted negatively on their services.

He also called on the Command to expedite action towards improving in their international passports processing services, including the need to investigate and possibly put an end to alleged corrupt practices in the system.

He gave assurance that journalists in the state would never relent in projecting the activities of the Command professionally.

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