The Nigeria Immigration Service has assured Nigerians of the availability of passport booklets at all its passport issuing centres across the country.
The NIS spokesperson, Mr. Sunday James, gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja.
James acknowledged that NIS previously had the challenge of shortage of the booklets, but insisted that the problem had since been resolved.
“It would be recalled that on March 2 this year, the Service did inform the public about a shortfall in the supply of Passport Booklets.
“You may wish to note that the situation has since been resolved following government’s intervention; and normalcy restored in all the issuing centres as contained in our Press Release of April 6, 2017,” he said.
He said there was no scarcity of passport booklets across all NIS issuing centres in the country or at the missions abroad as being reported by a section of the media.
He said the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. Muhammad Babandede, had urged all passport applicants to approach the nearest passport offices to process their documents.
Babandede had also stressed the need for applicants to avoid patronising touts and agents who make the process cumbersome.
He said the NIS boss also noted that several passport booklets have been produced but remained uncollected across the various issuing centres.
Babandede directed that all the affected issuing centres should immediately collect their booklets.
He advised the public to disregard the misinformation about the scarcity.
The spokesperson urged the public to always contact the NIS office or forward all their complaints/challenges on the process to nis.servicom@nigeriaimmigration.gov.ng or call 08119753844 for attention. (NAN)