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Washington D.C Chancery Issues e-Passport to Nigerians
- By Williams Ekanem
- Published May 23rd, 2011
- Washington File
- Unrated
Nigerians in the Washington Metropolitan Area in the United States can now obtain their electronic passport at the Nigerian Embassy in D.C.
This is consequent upon the flag off for the issuance of the e-passport in the metropolitan area last week. This brings to three the number of places Nigerians in the United States can obtain e-passports; others are New York and Atlanta. Performing the flag off, Minister of Interior, Chief Emeka Wogu said the ceremony “depicts the vigorous pursuit of our obligations to Nigerians in the Diaspora and in furtherance of citizenship centered diplomacy of the federal government.”
According to the Minister, it is in government’s determined effort at bringing the dividends of democracy to the door steps of Nigerians in the Diaspora, that e-passports equipment are being deployed to countries with large population of Nigerians.
He added that Immigration officers are also being deployed to several countries with mobile enrolment and acquisition machines to conduct intervention exercises by issuing e-passports at foreign missions.
The exercise, Wogu indicated, is ongoing and it is hoped that majority, if not all Nigerians in the Diaspora will undoubtedly benefit from this laudable project.
The need to embrace the electronic passport, he stated, was occasioned by the insistence of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a body responsible for regulating and ensuring best practices and procedures of various aspects of international travels.
The need for electronic passports, he pointed out, became even more imperative as a result of the September 11 terrorist attack in the USA in 2001.
Prior to the commencement of the issuance of e-passports, the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) era was characterized by cases of identity theft, forgery, proxy issuance and other forms of document fraud, the Minister said.
This unwholesome trend, he regretted, posed a lot of challenges to Nigerian travelers as almost every Nigerian became an object of suspicion and was subjected to rather humiliating screening at most international airports.
With the introduction of the electronic passport, the Minister said that the country has earned greater and better recognition from international community. This, he said, is buttressed by the fact that the e-passport has brought restoration of dignity of the Nigerian travelers as the e-passport has a microchip embedded in it coupled with other peculiar security features that is not susceptible to the shortcomings associated with MRP.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma advised Nigerians against changing their data at will warning that the e-passport will reject such changes except for married women who want to effect maiden name during to their new married status.
The Nigeria Immigration Service is the agency of government statutorily empowered to issue travel documents and manage migration into and out of the country. It rolled out the e-passport in July 2007.
This is consequent upon the flag off for the issuance of the e-passport in the metropolitan area last week. This brings to three the number of places Nigerians in the United States can obtain e-passports; others are New York and Atlanta. Performing the flag off, Minister of Interior, Chief Emeka Wogu said the ceremony “depicts the vigorous pursuit of our obligations to Nigerians in the Diaspora and in furtherance of citizenship centered diplomacy of the federal government.”
According to the Minister, it is in government’s determined effort at bringing the dividends of democracy to the door steps of Nigerians in the Diaspora, that e-passports equipment are being deployed to countries with large population of Nigerians.
He added that Immigration officers are also being deployed to several countries with mobile enrolment and acquisition machines to conduct intervention exercises by issuing e-passports at foreign missions.
The exercise, Wogu indicated, is ongoing and it is hoped that majority, if not all Nigerians in the Diaspora will undoubtedly benefit from this laudable project.
The need to embrace the electronic passport, he stated, was occasioned by the insistence of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a body responsible for regulating and ensuring best practices and procedures of various aspects of international travels.
The need for electronic passports, he pointed out, became even more imperative as a result of the September 11 terrorist attack in the USA in 2001.
Prior to the commencement of the issuance of e-passports, the Machine Readable Passport (MRP) era was characterized by cases of identity theft, forgery, proxy issuance and other forms of document fraud, the Minister said.
This unwholesome trend, he regretted, posed a lot of challenges to Nigerian travelers as almost every Nigerian became an object of suspicion and was subjected to rather humiliating screening at most international airports.
With the introduction of the electronic passport, the Minister said that the country has earned greater and better recognition from international community. This, he said, is buttressed by the fact that the e-passport has brought restoration of dignity of the Nigerian travelers as the e-passport has a microchip embedded in it coupled with other peculiar security features that is not susceptible to the shortcomings associated with MRP.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mrs. Rose Uzoma advised Nigerians against changing their data at will warning that the e-passport will reject such changes except for married women who want to effect maiden name during to their new married status.
The Nigeria Immigration Service is the agency of government statutorily empowered to issue travel documents and manage migration into and out of the country. It rolled out the e-passport in July 2007.
