The Minister of Interior, Mr Aba Moro, announced on Saturday in Nairobi that the Federal Government had commenced installation of Data Capturing Machines (DCM) Nigerian missions abroad.
Moro was on the entourage of President Goodluck Jonathan on a three-day state visit to Kenya, which ended on Saturday.
Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the minister assured that the challenges of procurement, renewal of passport and visa at embassies and mission abroad had ended.
He said that the installation of the machines would also end the periodic sending of immigration officials to foreign missions and embassies for data capturing.
The Nigerian community in Kenya had at a forum with Jonathan in Nairobi, told the government to address the challenges of procurement of travelling documents.
Moro said that government would begin the installations of the DCM in phases.
He disclosed that officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service would be deployed to missions abroad to operate the machines.
“Kenya is among the 17 countries that approval had been granted last week for the roll out of the DCM.
“So in the next couple of months, officials of the Ministry of Interior and Nigeria Immigration Service will be here to roll out the machines for the procurement of passports and travelling documents in Kenya.
“I am aware that we have had the machines in some foreign missions and embassies but there was the challenge of lack of professionals to handle them.
“It was because of that that we have agreed in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that as much as possible and as resources will take us, we will post immigration officers to handle our DCM.
“It is my hope that after the installation and sending of the officials the challenge of procurement of passports will be a thing of past.” he said.
The minister disclosed that a committee had been set up by the government to address corruption, extortion and begging by both uniform and non-uniform officials at Nigerian airports.
He said that the committee was set up by the Office of the Vice President to carry out reform at the airports.
Moro said government was taking steps to address complaints of begging and extortion’’ at the airports.
“We have had problems with our airports in the past and in line with the transformation agenda of the president, a lot of reforms and re-branding in the sector had occurred in recent times.
“In order to make the reform holistic, a committee has been set up under the Office of the Vice President to define precisely who and who should be at the airport and doing what at what time.
“While we will not completely exonerate officers who work at the airports from corrupt tendencies, I want to say that at the moment because of the way things were done in the past, it was actually very difficult to separate honest government officials working at the airports from touts.
“A lot of people wear uniform and you do not know which uniform belong to what and who.
“The committee that has been set up by the Office of the Vice President is strictly empowered to define exactly who to be at what position and doing what at one point in time.
“At that point, we will be able to know who is doing what and whether it is legitimate at the ambit of the laws establishing those institutions.’’
The minister appealed to airport users to desist from giving tips to officials, saying that acts of begging should be reported to appropriate authorities.
“While we are doing our beats to rid our institutions of corruption, we want to implore the members of the public to make sure that they do not aid or abet these crimes.
“I have directed that in the Immigration Service, anybody found wanting in his or her duty or found to collect inducement before doing legitimate job will be summarily dismissed from service.’’
