Any former political office holders and retired public servants who are still in possession of the nation’s diplomatic passports will be arrested.
The newly appointed Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammad Babandede, gave the order while addressing senior officers of the Service on Tuesday at the Service headquarters in Abuja.
The C-G instructed officers on duty at the various airports in the country to arrest such persons which include former ministers, state governors and deputies, diplomats, National Assembly members and senators and hand them over to the police for prosecution.
Babandede said that President Muhammadu Buhari had on September 7, 2015, directed the NIS to retrieve the documents from all illegal holders noting that, most of them were yet to comply with the directive.
He said “charges will be pressed against unauthorised 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.”
