10,846 passports produced in 11 months in C/River – NIS

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Cross River command, says a total of 10,846 passports were produced by the command between January and November, 2022.

The state controller of the NIS, Chris Baikie, who disclosed this to our reporter in Calabar on Thursday, said the figure included both E-Passport and the Enhanced E-Passport.

He noted that 1,966 Enhanced E-Passport that took effect from August were produced between August and November while the figure for the E-Passport produced was 8,880.

The controller who lamented inadequate office space and manpower as the major challenge affecting operation in the command, however, noted that a total of 670 passports were uncollected within the same period.

Speaking on the issue of inadequate office space, Baikie stressed that this has encouraged indiscipline among staff and also impacted negatively on productivity.

According to him, “It is scandalously inadequate. We need space to offer quality service and for us to be very productive.

“The way we are all presently lumped together is counter productive and encourages indiscipline where you have both junior and senior staff seated together in one small office.

“It also doesn’t help members of the public because we can’t give them the quality service they deserve.”

The controller said that the command has applied for 33.4 hectares of land from the Cross River government to address the issue.

On the manpower, Baikie said that the present 324 staff strength in the command needs to be doubled to effectively discharge their constitutional responsibility.

Similarly, he said, paucity of funds and lack of logistics were also a hindrance to the command’s operation.

“The only Hilux vehicle the command has is not in a good condition to go outside Calabar.

“You know also that it is part of our statutory responsibility to go round hotels for expatriates that are not cleared but can’t even do that because of lack of vehicles.

“Like the issue of office space, this is also affecting our operation across the 18 Local Government Area of the state where we have offices,” he stated.