Nigeria:"Arrest All Unauthorized Holders Of Diplomatic Passports", New Immigration Boss, Babandede, Orders

The new Immigration boss, Mohammad Babandede has directed that all unauthorized holders of diplomatic passports be arrested. This directive was aimed at retrieving diplomatic passports issued to former political office holders, including governors, ministers, senators and retired public servants who are yet to return their diplomatic passports.

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Babandede gave the directive at the headquarters of the National Immigration Service(NIS), while addressing senior officers, Tuesday, 31st May, 2016.

"Charges will be pressed against unauthorized holders of such documents because such persons are no longer in the eligibility list and are, therefore, in contravention of Sec. 10 of the Extant Immigration Act, 2015. I am hereby directing that unauthorised holders of such passports be arrested at the airports and other points of entry/departure. Efforts will be made to trace such unauthorized holders in their given addresses."he said.

It can be recalled that President Buhari had on 7th September, 2015 directed the NIS to retrieve all official and diplomatic passports still in the possession of former public office holders of the Goodluck Jonathan regime.