Broken Down Warri Passport Issuance Office: Such A Shame

In my relentless agitation, justified by my proof of teeming population of the Nigeria Passport seekers in the area, and issuance office of the Nigeria Immigration Service was established in Warri, cited at the Governor’s Office Annex, Edjeba, Warri, Delta state.

The agitation was painstaking. Fortunately, then sitting Delta state Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan embraced the approval with the provision of the office space.

The development brought relief to applicants who hitherto had to risk failed road travel to Benin or Asaba to procure passports. Around Warri and environs, people could just walk into the Immigrations and get the passport issued even within a day.

It is sad, very disappointing that the relief just couldn’t be sustained. Feelers from the Warri passport office indicates that the processing machine has broken down for over two years now.

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Residents are again subjected to the better forgotten passed ordeal of travelling to Asaba, Benin, some even as far as Abuja or Lagos to get the passport. Most of the people who throng the Benin and Asaba immigration issuance offices now are from Warri and environs.

This shame is one of the indices to tell what a failed administration the President Mohammadu Buhari led APC Federal Government has been. What is in a broken down passport printing machine that cannot be restored?

So, you have Immigrations staff redundant with a failed passport issuance machine and receiving salaries with office accommodation in wastage. The situation even encourages misconduct as some of the redundant staff now feel comfortable turning passport agents who now collect monies from applicants in Warri to go process in locations with functional machines.

The APC government that was supposed to be a reformist administration has turned out to be the worst administration in the history of the nation. What a disappointment.

All necessary modalities must be put in place to restore the passport printing machines in the Warri immigration issuance office. It is such an avoidable shame.

Zik Gbemre
March 22, 2022