Alausa passport office generates N684m

The Nigerian Immigration Service says the Alausa Passport Office, which was inaugurated last year, has generated over N684m in revenue.

The Passport Control Officer, Mr. Joshua Ajisafe, said this in his address at an event to commemorate the one year inauguration of the passport office in Lagos on Thursday.

The immigration boss added that the passport office had been able to initiate an e-archive scheme which was capable of scanning and storing 1,600 documents per hour.

He, however, lamented that the office ran independently on two generators for power supply which had continued to create a huge financial burden.

He said, “Within the last one year of inaugurating this office, we have generated N684, 996,350 into the Federal Government’s coffers.

“Also, to ease the problem of file storage and retrieval, this passport office has been able to operate a modern e-archive. Today, this unit has capacity to scan and store 1,600 documents per hour. This makes our office the first passport office in all the commands in the country to operate an electronic document storage and retrieval.”

The Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Zone A, Alhaji Nuhu Ibrahim, while addressing immigration officers, urged them to be wary of identity thieves who used passports for bank fraud, human trafficking and terrorism.

Nuhu said the service had a zero tolerance for corruption, adding that anyone caught in the act would be sacked.

He said immigration officers should be polite to applicants as their job was to serve the people.

He said, “Be very careful when dealing with passports. Remember the September 2001 plane bombing was successful through the use of fake passports. Also, beware of identity thieves who use passports to perpetrate bank frauds.

“You need to be friendly and polite to people. They are paying for the service and should not be harassed.”