General
NIS Deploys Team to clear Over 100,000 Unclaimed Passports
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A task force saddled with the responsibility of clearing the over 100,000 produced but unclaimed passports nationwide has been set up by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
It was gathered that Lagos topped the list of uncollected passports with about 40,000.
The team will work in collaboration with Zonal Comptrollers, State Comptrollers and Passport Controllers in their respective areas of responsibility to ensure speedy collection of the produced passports by the applicants.
The Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr Isah Jere Idris, who constituted the task force, charged the Assistant Comptroller Generals (ACGs) to ensure the smooth collection of the unclaimed passports.
The NIS chief said the mandate of the senior officers was to ensure that everything possible was done to locate the applicants whose passports were among the 100,000 produced passports that have not been collected by the prospective holders.
The immigration boss, while describing as worrisome the failure of applicants to come forward to collect their passports months after they were produced, called on those that applied for Nigerian travel passports since January last year and those that applied within the six weeks’ passport processing timeline to visit the Passport Offices where they did their biometric capture for collection of their produced passports.
While assuring that immigration personnel were always working round the clock to ensure the speedy processing of applications and production of passports to meet the needs of the travelling public, the CGI stated that passport production was a continuous exercise as it was not limited to any particular time or season of the year.
To further assist the applicants, he enjoined passport applicants to always check their application status by using any of the numerous channels which the NIS has provided, including the Passport Application Tracking (PATs) solution (www.trackimmigration.gov.ng), notice boards at the Passport Offices and the NIS website for regular updates.
On what could have been responsible for the high number of unclaimed produced passports, Mr Idris blamed the applicants, many of whom he said supplied incorrect contact details such as inactive telephone numbers, contact addresses and e-mail addresses, thereby making it difficult for NIS personnel at the Passport Offices to reach them for the collection of their passports.
He also disclosed that it had come to the notice of the NIS that some applicants were still patronising third parties to fill and submit applications on their behalf, noting that in many cases, incorrect information about the applicants was supplied. In some cases, the third parties used their own contact details, while a majority of the applicants neither verified nor double-checked such information supplied.
He appealed to passport applicants to stop the practising of going through third parties, warning that they could be at security risks, including breach of their personal data and other fraudulent activities.
“It is like someone wants to travel and sends a third party to buy a ticket from the airline, on filling out the particulars of the intending traveller, the person sent to buy the ticket filled in his or her telephone number and e-mail address.
“So, a few minutes to flight time, the airline sends an SMS to all intending passengers notifying them the flight has been cancelled or rescheduled. The passenger unknowingly rushes to the airport only to discover a change in flight time. Who is to blame? Nigerians should be aware that the Nigerian passport is more than a travelling document; it is a personal identity and a personal security asset of the holder, and the sanctity of the process of obtaining it must be protected,” the NIS boss advised.
It would be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Interior and NIS recently rolled out some initiatives aimed at making obtaining and renewing the Nigerian international passport quicker and less cumbersome, including a six-week timeframe to apply and get the new enhanced e-Passport for fresh applicants and three weeks for reissue.
Also, Diaspora Fast Track Programme was launched recently, which made it possible for holders of expired Nigerian passports in the Diaspora to board at their countries of residence and be admitted into Nigeria with their expired passports without any inhibition.
A circular had also been sent out to consular offices, local and international airlines, and Immigration Comptrollers at the nation’s airports to allow Nigerians in the Diaspora with expired Nigerian passports to be allowed free passage whenever they wanted to come to Nigeria.
Furthermore, a special desk called Diaspora Desk was also set up at International Airports in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt to provide expeditious immigration services to Nigerians in the Diaspora especially the application for the renewal of their expired passports immediately upon arrival in Nigeria. The Fast Track Programme has enabled a lot of Nigerians in the Diaspora with expired passports who came home for the year-end holidays to renew their expired passports under two weeks at no extra fee before returning to their countries of residence.
As part of the Diaspora Fast Track Programme, the Passport Offices also commenced Saturday operations for the processing and production of passports and this significantly made it possible for many Nigerians in the Diaspora to renew their expired Nigerian passports as quickly as possible.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A new branch of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Nigeria Chapter has been established in Oyo State, with Mr Adejumo Olusola Babatunde chosen as Coordinator.
The organisation set up an arm in the South-West state in a bid to expand its footprint in the country. Mr Babatunde will be assisted by other executive committee members, including Mr Ajiboye Olusola Akeem as Secretary, and Mrs Adeniran Olaide as Treasurer.
At the inauguration of the branch at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Secretariat in the Akobo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the president of IFMA Nigeria, Mr Sheriff Daramola, expressed delight at the successful inauguration of the branch and commended members for their commitment to the growth of facility management in Nigeria.
He highlighted IFMA’s global heritage, noting that the association is supporting over 25,000 members in more than 140 countries worldwide. Mr Daramola emphasised IFMA’s strong global network, the world’s largest and most widely recognised association for facility management professionals, headquartered in the United States and its growing influence in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
“IFMA members have taken positions of authority across federal, state, and private institutions; IFMA Nigeria is positioned to ensure our professionals are the first choice for global investors entering the Nigerian market,” he stated.
The Legal Adviser of IFMA, Nigeria, Mr Sola Fatoki, who shared this sentiment, said, “Since 1997, when IFMA Nigeria was established, the association has equipped facility management professionals with integrated knowledge spanning human behaviour, infrastructure, and the built environment.”
He encouraged engineers, architects, surveyors, ITC, Technology innovators, data analysts and allied professionals to see IFMA as their professional home and outlined the functions and responsibilities of branch executive committees.
In his remarks, Mr Babatunde expressed gratitude to the national council for the opportunity to serve and pledged to ensure the success of the branch, focusing on unity and the professional advancement of stakeholders in the region.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has denied reports that some disputed crude oil and gas wells have been recommended for ceding to specific oil-producing states.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the chairman of the commission, Mr Mohammed Shehu, said the attention of RMAFC had been drawn to a “purported report allegedly issued by the Inter-Agency Committee on the Verification of Coordinates of Disputed Crude Oil and Gas Wells between States,” which was circulating in sections of the national media (excluding Business Post).
The agency described the report as “misleading, premature, and does not represent the position or conclusions of the Commission.”
“At this stage, there is no finalised recommendation or decision regarding the ceding or reallocation of any oil wells, as due institutional processes are still ongoing,” the statement read.
The organisation explained that it operates a clearly defined and transparent procedure in handling assignments of national significance, stressing that the process on the disputed oil wells had not been concluded.
It disclosed that it only received a draft report from the Federal Government’s Inter-Agency Committee on Nigeria’s Oil-Producing States on Friday, February 13, 2026, which reportedly projected Cross River State as an oil-producing state.
The report, covering the nationwide 2017–2025 verification of crude oil and gas coordinates, was presented to the Chairman of RMAFC by 10 of the 14 members of the committee.
The exercise, which ran from August 2025 to February 2026, involved extensive field verification, technical reconciliation of state submissions, and a final plenary plotting of coordinates at RMAFC headquarters between January 24 and 31, 2026.
“Consistent with established protocol, the draft document has been transmitted to relevant technical and statutory stakeholders, namely the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the National Boundary Commission, and the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, for detailed review, observations, and technical input,” the commission stated.
According to the statement, after the observations and recommendations of the agencies are received, the matter will be subjected to further scrutiny by the commission’s internal tripartite committees, comprising the Committee on Crude Oil, Gas and Investment and the Legal Matters Committee.
“These committees will undertake comprehensive technical and legal reviews before presenting their findings to the Plenary Session of RMAFC for deliberation and final recommendations,” it added.
The commission further explained that upon completion of the institutional processes, its final report would be formally transmitted to the President and the Attorney-General of the Federation for necessary consideration and further action in line with applicable laws and constitutional provisions.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered an outage globally on Monday as millions of users could not use the service.
The widespread outages have been reported by thousands of users across several countries, including Nigeria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and India, among others.
According to data from Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions based on user reports, complaints about access to X started to pick up around 1:00 p.m. local time in Nigeria.
The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, and X has not put out any comment, but users told Business Post that the platform is not loading or cannot be reached, and the pattern of complaints suggests the issue is not limited to a single region.
Its developer platform status page stated “all systems are operational” all morning despite the reports.
The outage is the latest to hit internet services. X suffered a similar outage in March 2025, while a Cloudflare service outage caused access problems and downtime for various websites, including X, last November.
Microsoft’s Azure had also faced an issue last year, while disruption at Amazon AWS caused global turmoil among thousands of websites and some of the most popular apps, such as Snapchat and Reddit in October
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