By our reporter| The Federal Government on Tuesday replaced the emergency travel certificate with a temporary passport for security reasons.
The temporary passport is a new genre of travel document that will be issued at the Nigerian Embassies abroad to Nigerians wishing to return home but whose national passport was not available.
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, inaugurated the temporary passport at the Nigeria Immigration Service headquarters, Abuja on Tuesday.
A statement by the NIS spokesman, Sunday James, said the minister stated that the temporary passport was designed for a one-way travel to Nigeria only and that the new document replaces the hitherto Emergency Travel Certificate which was issued to Nigerians in emergency situations for the purpose of returning home.
The statement read, ‘’He maintained that the temporary passport is ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) compliant and is valid for only 30 days before the date of travel and it is not in any way a replacement for the Nigerian passport as it will only serve a temporary purpose in the case of loss or misplacement of the Nigerian passport by a Nigerian abroad.’’
The statement further noted that Comptroller-General of Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, explained that the replaced ETC was a huge security threat to Nigeria and the global community “because it was an ordinary paper devoid of necessary security features of a travel document.’’
According to him, the TP has a chip and surface personalization which is an enhancement of the Electronic Passport Management System.
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