By BUKOLA ADETOYE

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday said about 140,000 international passports are still uncollected nationwide.

The service spokesman, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration Service (DCI) Mr. Tony Akuneme, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), when he paid an official visit to Alausa Passport office, Ikeja, Lagos state.

Akuneme also said about 40,000 of the total 140,000 are in the Alausa Passport office.

According to the service spokesperson, majority of the uncollected passports had wrong phone contacts and untraceable addresses.

Akuneme implored applicants to process their international passports by themselves, using correct details and without involving racketeers.

He noted that it was wrong perception, to say that getting fresh or renewing international passport was very difficult.

“In spite of the extensive awareness embarked on by NIS on passport application and its processes, some Nigerians still patronise racketeers or consultants to process their passports, which usually does not work out well.

“Some applicants are gullible, they fell into the hands of touts who duped them of their hard earned money,” Akuneme said.

He pleaded with Nigerians to visithttps://passport.immigration.gov.ng/application, to process their passports themselves.

“I still want to emphatically plead with passport seekers not to use consultants, racketeers, nor masqueraders while processing their international passports.

“Most of the contact numbers inputted by these unethical human beings are not real,” he said.

He implored applicants, who had applied before July 2022 and unable to obtain their passports to visit NIS website to lodge complaint. (NAN)