By Precious Oluwole

The speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Olamide Oladiji has charged the Nigeria Immigration Service, Ondo State command to make international passports available to all Nigerians.

He made this call while receiving a delegation of Ondo State command of Nigeria Immigration Service, led by the State Comptroller, Mr Kayode Ademola Afolabi, in his office on Thursday

“Find a way to make passports available at any time for Nigerians, most especially at this critical time that people travel out for medical check up or to visit their family members”.

The speaker noted that there’s an existing law in line with child trafficking in Ondo State and is being followed. “I can assure you that we are going to partner with you in our constituencies and give you information regarding child trafficking”.

Regarding the issue of recruitment, the speaker urged to the Comptroller to always let the House of Assembly know when its time for recruitment.

“It is from you that we can get the genuine advertisement, so that as representatives of our people, we can let them know. We have a lot of graduates who don’t have job. We will partner with you for the development of our dear state”.

The speaker, while appreciating the team for the courtesy visit, commended the excellence of the Comptroller, urging him to continue in that direction.

Earlier in his address, the State Comptroller of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr Kayode Ademola Afolabi revealed that the reason for the visit is to build a relationship with the Ondo State House of Assembly, so that Nigeria Immigration Service in Ondo State will have the mind to do their job accordingly.

He added that the officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service are working in the local government, monitoring legal and illegal immigrants.

According to him, human trafficking is now rampant and many people have lost their lives on transit.

“It is good for our children to travel abroad but it must be legal. Traffickers use other means to convince our children and take them out of the country and now, they are being enslaved in different countries”.

“We need your assistance because no state can survive without your office. We need some law that can hold traffickers, so that we can reduce them drastically”.

While noting that Nigerian passport is a right of every citizen in the country, the Comptroller stressed that insufficient booklets is the major challenge that delays the readiness of passports in Ondo State.