The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola has said that corrupt officials are undermining the efforts of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at sanitising and bringing integrity to passport applications.
Aregbesola who said that the NIS did not, at any given time, experience shortage of passport booklets, made this known while inaugurating the NIS passports’ front office in Oyo State.
He described reports of the passport booklet shortage as a lie and an excuse by a few corrupt officials of the service to extort the applicants, noting that challenges facing the immigration service were gradually being tackled.
The minister explained that some unscrupulous people were making the situation difficult by the day and if Nigerians did not tolerate them, they would not be operational again.
Aregbesola urged Nigerians to stop patronising the touts and report any NIS officials manipulating applicants for money.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the minister said, “They are the ones spreading the rumour that there are no booklets in order to continue to extort the applicants.
“We did not have a shortage of booklets at any given time; we have enough booklets to meet the need of the people.
“There are more than enough booklets in our production schedule.”
