Christopher Oji
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has issued the Lagos State deputy governor, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, the new 10-yvwear enhanced e-passport.
The deputy governor was the first person to be issued with the 64 page international passport.
Hamzat, who represented Governor Sanwo-Olu in the issuance of the passport said he was happy with the innovation by the service, adding that the exercise was bordered on national security.
According to him, the state government would key in the system to get database of citizens resident in Lagos: “I may have known a person or his parents, but without database we may not know you very well. With the database by the Immigration, we will be able to know our citizens better. We have to use database to query things.
“We have to commend people, organisations when they do good things. The passport is superb. Everything about it is good. I want to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the new e-passport. The Lagos State government will continue to partner with the service.”
I have just been captured and the passport was issued within 25 minutes . I have gone round the facilities and I am convinced that NIS is fully prepared for the job of issuing the new enhanced passport”.
On his own , Comptroller – General of Immigration , Mr Mohammed Babandede , who welcomed Hamzat, said the service has successfully launched the enhanced e-Passport by President Buhari in January this year, “ the service has successfully rolled out the document in Abuja and today ,we are here at the heart of the commercial centre of the country for the second phase of the roll out starting with the deputy governor of Lagos State.
“ After 10 years of issuing the e-Passport ,the service in 2017 found it expedient to review the document in line with International Civil Aviation Organisation’s requirement with a view to improving the security of the document viz -a -viz latest technology and global best practices . The philosophy behind it is national security and ease of doing business. That is why it has 20 additional security features ,including the National Identity Number for robust identity management in Nigeria.
“ The document also has different menu ,one of which is 64 page, 10 year validity passport which will save Nigerian businessmen’s time and resources of frequent visit to passport offices .The new passport has poly carbonate technology which makes it more durable “.