It also mandated the committee to turn in its report of the
investigation in two weeks.
Senate resolution was sequel to the adoption of a motion on
the ”Delay on issuance , renewal of Nigeria International Passport” by the
Nigerian Immigration Services at Plenary on Tuesday.
The motion was sponsored by Uche Ekwunife (PDP-Anambra).
Mrs. Ekwunife in her lead debate said the delay in missions
and renewal of Nigeria international passport by the Nigerian Immigration
Service nationwide was resulting in untold hardships for Nigerians, who need to
travel out of the country or return to the country.
She said the international passport was an official identity
document, issued to Nigerians for the purpose of traveling out and into the
country in exercise of their rights to personal liberty and freedom of
movement.
She said many Nigerians were still facing challenge with
passport processing, despite the six weeks time line of processing passport,
given by the federal government barely a year ago .
According to her, presently, new applicants and those who
want their passports renewed spend between three to six months processing their
international passport applications at the offices of the Nigerian Immigration
Services and Nigeria embassies outside the country.
Mrs. Ekwunife said getting appointment for biometric
capturing at the passport offices now takes between five to eight weeks, while
it takes many applicants four months waiting for their passports to be ready
for collection after the biometric exercise.
She said that it has also become extremely difficult for
passport to be processed across the country, in the immigration offices
especially Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt .
This, she noted was forcing the applicants to travel to
various locations to get their passports renewed.
“The international students are also finding it very
difficult to renew their passports to enable them travel back to reunite with
their families,” she said.
Gershom Bassey (PDP-Cross-River), who seconded the motion
said issuance of passport was a right of every Nigerian.
He expressed concern that the idea of delay on issuance of
passport that was almost becoming a controversy was not in the best interest of
Nigerians.
Similarly, Biodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti) said the motion was
timely, saying that it was important to resolve the issue as that was not the situation
in the past when passports were issued within two to three days.
She said it was embarrassing to Nigerians that applicants
would need to wait six to eight months for passport to be issued .
Muhammad Bulkachuwa (APC-Bauch) however, said the motion had
come too late as the matter should have been presented earlier before the
Senate.
Mr Bulkachuwa said he had experienced a similar delay when
he applied for a renewal of his passport .
According to him, it took five weeks for him to be issued
his passport after his biometric exercise.
The Senate also mandated its committee to investigate the
contract awarded for the printing of Nigerian passport.