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No Passport Booklet Shortage Again In Nigeria – FG; Deploys 10,000 Booklets To New P/Harcourt Passport Production Centre

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There is no shortage of booklets again for the production of passport in Nigeria, the Federal Government has revealed.

This was made known by the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, at the commissioning of the Enhanced Passport Production Centre in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital on Tuesday, 9 August, 2022. The newly commissioned passport centre will now be responsible for the production of passport demands from Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States.

“We have left no stone unturned in our quest to make passports available to Nigerians. Last year alone, we provided 1.3 million passports to Nigerians. As of today, there is no booklets shortage in Nigeria.

“As at the second quarter of this year (in June), the NIS have provided 645,000 passports out of the 750,000 applications received. To address the challenge of the backlog, we have sent 11,000 booklets to Ikoyi, 11,000 to Alausa and 8,000 to FESTAC centres in Lagos.

“We have also sent sufficient booklets to all the centres nationwide to address this challenge. There is therefore no excuse again for delay and non-issuance within a reasonable period,” Minister told the cheering public.

The Minister also urged the listening public to make sure they apply by themselves online to avoid being shortchanged by unscrupulous elements.

“I will urge applicants for the Nigerian passport to apply early enough before their travel date to avoid cutting corners and falling into the hands of scammers and other opportunists. It is important also that they apply by themselves at the Nigeria Immigration Service portal and not through touts and unscrupulous officials, which often bring heartaches.

“We have provided a window of six weeks and three weeks for fresh application and renewal respectively, after biometric data capture, by which time, other things being equal, the passport will be ready for collection. This timeline is to enable NIS investigate and validate the claims of applicants and confer integrity on the passport issued. It is a reasonable provision in passport administration by global standard. There is no wait-and-get passport service anywhere in the world. The only wait-and-get passport is passport-sized photograph from Polaroid camera,” the Minister stated.

The Minister further stated that the Passport Production Centre launched today will serve applicants from Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States, but was quick to add that it doesn’t confer any advantage or disadvantage on any of the centres, noting that a deployment of 10,000 booklets has been deployed to serve the fours states with immediate effect. He also stated that there are currently no backlogs in any of the four states.

“The production centre we are launching today will serve Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States for production purpose only. It doesn’t confer any advantage or disadvantage on the applicants in any of the four states. It’s simply a production centre.

“We have also delivered 10,000 passports to this centre. This is in addition to the fact that there are no backlogs to be cleared. In some advanced countries we often like to cite, it takes months to procure their passports. But in addition to the standardized timeline, we have also introduced tracking mechanism in the application process, to enable applicants monitor the progress of their application.

“We are also introducing data capture centres all over the country before the end of this year, to eliminate physical contacts with NIS officials. We shall continue to introduce necessary and available innovations to passport administration in order to best serve applicants in our quest for establishing citizenship integrity,” the Minister stated.

While speaking, Governor Nyesom Wike, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Gogo Banigo, promised to continue to support the Nigeria Immigration Service in the state, as it was the policy of his administration.

“We would continue to support the Nigeria Immigration Service, just as we provided the building now housing the production centre.

“Just as we provide support to all security agencies in the state and in particular, the agencies under the ministry of Interior, we would continue to prioritize the welfare of the citizens of the state,” Gov. Wike stated.

During his opening address, Acting Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Idris Isah Jere, revealed that the service will no longer condone any act of indiscipline by officer, noting that they must be professional in carrying out their assigned duties.

Also at the event were: the General Officer Commanding, 6 Division, Nigerian Army, represented by Brig. General EC Echebuwe; Commander, 115 Special Operations Group, Group Captain AA Opaleye; Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, Mr. Friday, Eboka; Controller of Customs, Rivers State Command, Dappa Williams; Rivers State Director, Department of State Services, Mr. Mohammed Shittu; Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, Umar Salisu Galadunchi; Rivers State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mark Balm; amongst other dignitaries.

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Stop the Rumour, the Port Harcourt Refinery is working! …Peter Obi Commends the NNPCL for reviving the refinery

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Stakeholders and community leaders around the Port Harcourt Refinery have doused the groundswell of rumours and speculations that the recently revived and restreamed refinery was not working.
Last Tuesday, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, announced the “safe and successful restart of the 60,000 barrels-per-day Old Port Harcourt Refinery,” which it stated marks a significant step forward after years of operational challenges and underperformance and also “signifies a new era of energy independence and economic growth for our nation.”
However, naysayers went to town disclaiming the news, saying the corporation was lying about its revival of the refinery. Interestingly, Dibia Isaiah, Chief Security Officer, Alesa Kingdom, Rivers State, and NNPC Pipelines & Storage Company Loader, said in a viral video, “I am one of the loaders from the host community and NPSC. As you can see, the refinery is operational and running smoothly. This morning, I have already loaded four trucks. We are delighted that business has finally commenced after many years. The refinery has given us products, so now we are loading, and tomorrow we are loading. This time is a very busy period for us.”
Also, former Labour Party presidential candidate, Dr Peter Obi, has commended the Malam Mele Kyari-led NNPCL for “fulfilling the long-standing promise of revamping the old Port Harcourt refinery.” He added, “The refinery boasts an installed production capacity of 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Approximately 200 trucks are expected to load products daily from the refinery. Nigerians now await the corresponding impact and benefits on pump prices and the overall economy.”
Obi further said that the news of the Port Harcourt Refinery’s revival is promising, “as it is expected to boost productivity, improve transportation, and alleviate economic burdens across the country.” He signed off the statement with his signature ‘A new Nigeria is POssible.”

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Senator Gbenga Daniel’s Ijebu State Creation Bill Passes First Reading

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In a major breakthrough, Senator Otunba Engr. Gbenga Daniel’s bill for the creation of Ijebu State has passed its first reading at the National Assembly.

This development signals progress in the long-standing demand for a new state in Nigeria’s South-West region.

The proposed Ijebu State would comprise nine local government areas carved out from Ogun State, with Ijebu Ode designated as the state capital.

The local governments involved include Ijebu East, Ijebu North, Ijebu North East, Ijebu Ode, Ikenne, Odogbolu, Ogun Waterside, Remo North and Sagamu.

This initiative is part of broader efforts to realign Nigeria’s administrative divisions for enhanced governance.

Earlier in the year, Honourable Oluwole Oke introduced a related bill in the House of Representatives, proposing the creation of three new South-West states: Oke-Ogun, Ijebu, and Ife-Ijesa.

The proposal aims to amend the First Schedule, Part I of Nigeria’s Constitution to accommodate these states.

The push for Ijebu State has gained widespread support from traditional rulers, political figures, and community leaders.

Advocates argue that the new state would foster equitable development, improve administrative efficiency, and address decades of demands for better representation and resource allocation.

They also pointed out that of all the old provinces in Nigeria under the colonial administration, it is only Ijebu Province that has not yet become a state.

For Ijebu State to become a reality, the bill must successfully navigate further readings and debates in the National Assembly.

Senator Gbenga Daniel, a former Ogun State governor and seasoned politician, expressed optimism about the initiative’s potential to promote balanced regional development.

The creation of Ijebu State is expected to address disparities in resource distribution and governance within Ogun State

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Oditah is wrong about the EFCC- BY DELE OYEWALE

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Professor Fidelis Oditah’s recent interactive discussions on a wide range of issues on Arise News are quite engaging. As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN and an international legal mind, his views on national issues cannot be disregarded. Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once said, “with words we govern men”. Thus, Oditah words are important and cannot be dismissed as empty effusions lacking weight or impact.

However, the learned Professor’s submission on what he called the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s three fundamental problems are, to say the least, prejudicial, unfounded and misleading. First, Oditah stated that “The EFCC is often being used for settling many scores. Some are political scores, some are social scores. So, you could run away from your girlfriend and the girlfriend goes to the EFCC and the EFCC could ask you questions. What has that got to do with economic crimes? That is blatant abuse of power”

How on earth will this kind of a scenario painted by the learned silk hold water? The simplest argument against this kind of effusion is to challenge Oditah to provide proofs of such banality. We all know that this just an idle talk because the EFCC is a serious-minded law enforcement agency. The only worrisome aspect of such a talk is that it betrays an embarrassing lack of grasp of what the EFCC’s focus is.

This issue of appropriate and proper focusing of the mandate of the EFCC has been a central pivot of the three- pronged agenda of the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede. In the full glare of the entire world, while addressing members of the National Assembly in October 2023, Olukoyede stated that the focus of every fight against corruption is to stimulate growth in the economy. For more than a year now, the EFCC’s boss has been consistently following this route. The review of the arrest and bail procedures of the EFCC is in line with this. Professor Oditah is probably busy with his works as a King’s Counsel in the United Kingdom and have no time to be abreast of developments in the EFCC. Olukoyede is a lawyer of high pedigree and would not allow what the learned counsel called “ blatant abuse of power”.

The second “ fundamental problem of the EFCC”, according to Oditah is that “The EFCC has abandoned its mandate and reduce itself to a debt-collection agency, notwithstanding the numerous court decisions saying the EFCC must stay within the narrow confines of financial and economic crimes. The EFCC has gone out for debt recovery”. This submission, again, is hollow and vacuous. The EFCC’s Establishment Act does not empower the Commission to collect debt on behalf of anyone. The recovery the EFCC does is taking back proceeds of crime from fraudsters. Asset recovery, all over the world, is a fundamental law enforcement and anti-corruption initiative. As a matter of fact, it is the ground norm of every anti- corruption fight. To this end, Olukoyede in just one year, recovered N248,750,049,365.52 (Two Hundred and Forty-Eight Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Million, Forty-Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Naira, Fifty-Two Kobo).

In foreign currencies, recoveries of the Commission in the one year of Olukoyede’s leadership are: $105,423,190.39 (One Hundred and Five Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety Dollars, Thirty-Nine Cents); £ 53,133.64 (Fifty-Three Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty-Three Pounds, Sixty-Four Pence; €172,547.10 (One Hundred and Seventy-Two Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty-Seven Euros, Ten Cents) and many others.

Going by the quantum of these recoveries, not to talk of real estate recovered all over the country, including shares acquired with proceeds of crime in blue- chip companies, it is simply preposterous to reduce and ridicule asset recoveries to debt recovery. Professor Oditah owes the EFCC and the entire nation unconditional apology in this regard. Just two days ago, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted final forfeitures of over $2million and seven princely properties in choice areas of Lagos to the Federal Government. The assets are proceeds of crime traced to a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Do such recoveries fall into the category of debt recovery insinuation of Oditah? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently directed that N100billion be channeled to the funding of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND and the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, CreditCorp, respectively from the monetary recoveries of the EFCC. Is the Professor aware of all these? It is evident that bringing down the issue of asset recovery to the ridiculous corridor of debt recovery is deliberate caricature of an important anti-corruption framework of the government. This is an initiative which local, regional and international agencies are commending Olukoyede and the EFCC about. It is to be noted also that the Director of FBI and the DG of National Crime Agency in the UK where he resides have paid cortesty visits to Olukoyede commending him on the feat he has attained in the fight against corruption and financial crimes and to seek more collaboration with the agency in their shared mandate of fighting corruption and financial crimes

The third issue Odikah raised against the EFCC, like the earlier issues, again, lacks any firm ground of substance. Hear him:

“The EFCC itself, a number of officers are more corrupt than those they are chasing. So, you remember what happened to Mr Bawa, Mr Matawalle, when Mr Matawalle finished his tenure as governor of Zamfara state and he said he was invited by Mr Bawa to bring $2million so as not to be investigated. The EFCC itself has become a corrupt organisation which needs to be completely disbanded and a new body set up . The EFCC has the resources. It does not have the ethics. The EFCC majors on minor issues, catching students and showing them as cyber criminals and so it says, it procured 1000 convictions and when you look at them they are people who have defrauded people of 20 or 22 dollars. That’s not the mandate. That’s the periphery. The central mandate is to ensure that the resources which are put in the hands of states are used by the states and that’s where the EFCC.”

Going through all these trumped-up claims, it is obvious that Oditah has elected to totally launch unwarranted verbal war against the Commission and its officers. How many officers of the EFCC have been tainted with corruption allegations? Is it acceptable to use the “ sins” of very few elements in a community to paint and taint it as a community of sinners? It should be noted that there is no law enforcement agency in the world that is not vulnerable to corrupt officers. What is important is what the agency is doing to such elements. Olukoyede is known for his no-nonsense approach to ethical issues in the Commission. As a matter of fact, upon assumption of duties, he directed every officer of the Commission to declare their assets and ensure that verification of assets so declared is established. He went ahead to name the Department of Internal Affairs as Department of Ethics and Integrity. Beyond all these, some erring officers of the Commission have either been shown the way out or facing trial. In recent times, the Commission has had cause to dismiss some officers on allegations of corruption and gross misconduct. The EFCC is self- cleansing and the Commission deserves commendation for this.

It is worrisome that a Professor of the reputation and exposure of Oditah could dismiss the Commission’s onslaught against internet fraudsters as an unserious engagement. The damages this genre of fraudsters are causing the nation is untold. A crime that has a projection of $10.6trillion loss to the whole world in 2025 and Nigeria lost more than $500million in 2022 alone, is what Oditah derisively lampooned the EFCC about. We have cause to be worried that those who ought to know better are either playing the Ostrich or advertising their ignorance of a major malaise confronting the nation. Owing to the threat of cybercrimes to the development of our country, the EFCC has held two national dialogues on it. The recent one held few days ago at the Presidential Villa. The Professor should know that the EFCC mandate is to investigate all financial and economic crimes and no financial crime is small or big to be investigated in order to save the soul of the nation. It should be recalled that in recent times, the EFCC had had cause to prosecute and file charges against four ex- governors and some former ministers who were found culpable by EFCC’s investigation for looting state treasuries. This is just to confirm that the Commission is not scared of taking up large-scale fraud’s investigations and prosecution which we shall continue to do

There is no denying the fact that the respected professor goofed in all his comments about the EFCC and his views are not reflective of the realities on ground concerning the anti-corruption fight of the government.

On a final note, we enjoin professor Oditah to get himself familiar with the works of the Commission and lend his expertise and rich experience to the nation for a more robust and fully-integrated war against corruption. We also want to advise the fourth estate of the realm not to allow their platforms to be used to cast unfounded aspersions on the good works of the EFCC. The Commission is not averse to meaningful contributions and advise from well-meaning and reform-minded Nigerians to strengthen our processes and procedures as we continue this crusade,

Oyewale is head, media & publicity of the EFCC.

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