In order to meet the huge demands of passport applicants in the country, the passport office, Ikoyi, Lagos, has included Saturday in its workdays, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Investigations by NAN correspondent on Saturday revealed that more Nigerians troop to Ikoyi office to apply for passports.

This put enormous pressure on the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) staff members.

In order to meet demands, the office, therefore, included Saturdays in its workdays for collection of processed passports.

An applicant who spoke to NAN under anonymity commended the centre for striving hard to meet the demands.

She affirmed that the collection process had become easier and better if compared to some years back.

However, she said,

“I advice the Federal government to employ more hands to meet these ever-increasing demands.

“More Nigerians troop to this office to seek for passports, although the banks within NIS premises provide seats and conducive environment for applicants.”

Another applicant, Miss Yetunde Maja, an undergraduate, decried the time wasted on queues to collect the passports.

She said,

“I was scheduled for Friday to collect my passport; however, I have been here close to three hours.

“Although the queue is moving gradually,” she said.

The Public Relations Officers ( PRO), of the passport office, Mrs Uju Grace, said officers ran shifts to guard against undue backlogs.

The Passport Control Officer (PCO), Ikoyi Centre, Mr Mannir Yari, said the extension of workdays to include the day was part of strategies developed by the office to ensure Nigerians accessed NIS service delivery speedily.

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Yari said,

“Ikoyi passport is where you can apply and get your passport in a week, infact our office has cleared all backlog of the old passport.

“We are just waiting for applicants to come for collection,” he added.

 

NAN