The list of cancelled passports has been published on the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) website as a renewed bid to track the use of false identities and travel documents of compromised fidelity.
According to the website, 1,288 such non-genuine passports have been cancelled by the NIS since 2005, while the list is said to be updated regularly.
The NIS said that the e-passport "has become a major tool in the fight against transborder criminality... The e-passport contains the biometric details of holders, thus making it easy to detect persons traveling under false identities or compromised travel documents, especially as the service is poised to introduce the PKD at our borders which has been approved by the Federal Government."
The upload is seen as a major step towards greater use of ICT tools in the delivery of its mandate.
David Paradang, Comptroller-General of Immigration in his maiden address during a parade marking his ascension to the top job had said that the Nigeria Immigration Service will "rely on cutting edge technologies that are practicable in our environment to transform the Nigeria Immigration Service."
He promised that the technologies will not be substandard but will be sustainable and well tailored to the challenges and needs in migration management.
Conscious of the service's role in managing the nation's security challenges, Paradang added that his Service "will work with other security organs to manage and solve Nigeria's peculiar security challenges."
The CGI called on all officers to come together, remain focused, imbibe discipline, be incorruptible and conform with global best practices, adding that under his watch, NIS staff will be well motivated, well provided for, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with any immigration official anywhere in the world.
In a related development, the agency has also issued an alert on online job scams underway to defraud unwary applicants.
Ekpedeme King, a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration who is also Service Public Relations Officer, NIS, warned the public to be wary of such.
"It has been brought to the attention of the Nigeria Immigration Service that some unscrupulous Nigerians have continued to post advertorials on the internet calling for submission of applications for recruitment into various cadres in the Nigeria Immigration Service as well as demanding for some amount of money to be deposited into certain bank accounts for the recruitment.
"The Comptroller-General of Immigration wishes to reiterate that the NIS is presently not carrying out any recruitment exercise at any level. Therefore, the CGI calls on members of the public to be wary of the antics of these few fraudsters to avoid falling prey to them."
NIS added that Nigerians will be duly informed whenever the Service hopes to commence recruitment, in the manner prescribed by Federal Civil Service Rules and Regulations as well as other relevant statutes to ensure fairness, equity and that only qualified persons that meet our contemporary needs are recruited."
NIS said that it embraced the use of ICT in its operations with the introduction of the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens card (CERPAC).
"Ever since the service has taken giant strides in the use of ICT in its processes and operational procedures, notably the introduction of online payment for its facilities, in other words, e-revenue collections by the service popularized this mode of revenue collection, leading it to become a Federal Government policy."
0 comments:
Post a Comment