The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has completed the process of automation of and integration of its system to monitor lost and stolen travel documents.
The service says this feat positions Nigeria as the only country in Africa to have launched a system that monitors missing travel documents.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Public Relations Officer of the Service, DCI Sunday James, he said the Service has deployed the system warehoused in the INTERPOL i-24/7 for the uploading of 150,000 stolen and lost travel documents between February 14, 2020 to September 7, 2020 into INTERPOL Global System (IPSG) located in Lyon, France.
Our correspondent gathered that the automation and integration of the tool was successfully completed on Monday, September 7, 2020.
“The 150,000 stolen and lost documents (SLTD) uploaded records in INTERPOL data base makes the first (1st) ranking in Africa and 54th in the world according to INTERPOL POLICE GLOBAL SYSTEM (IPSG) ranking. Nigeria today is the leading first and only African country to have fully automated its Stolen and Lost Travel Documents Database.
“This success was achieved with the immense support of the INTERPOL GLOBAL SYSTEM (IPSG), UNITED STATES NATIONAL CENTRAL BUREAU (USNCB) Washington, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and NATIONAL CENTRAL BUREAU (NCB) of the Nigerian Police Force Abuja” the statement read.
It further added that the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede while expressing appreciation to agencies who offered support in making this possible said it will go a long way in curbing identity theft and use of stolen and lost travel documents by those he described as criminal elements seeking to hide their identities to cross national borders in engage in illicit acts worldwide.
“By this development, Nigerians are advised to desist from using fake, altered, invalidated, withdrawn, stolen and lost travel, since the documents are automatically made available to 194 member countries of INTERPOL.
“The Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service therefore warned holders of Nigerian passports not to use such re-issued passport anywhere in the world as failure will lead to arrest and prosecution” the statement added.
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