The exercise will commence on December 3, 2022 to January 28, 2023, between 10 am to 2 pm.

The Nigeria Immigration Service says it has ordered its offices across the nation to work on Saturdays to clear the backlog of passport applications.

The comptroller-general of the Immigration Service, Isa Jere, gave the directive, according to a statement by the spokesperson, Tony Akuneme, on Saturday.

Mr Jere said the directive is to enable the Service to reduce the backlog caused by the 2020 and 2021 prolonged lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The C-G has directed that Passport offices across the country with a high volume of pending applications to work on Saturdays," it said.

He said the exercise will commence on December 3, 2022 to January 28, 2023, between 10 am to 2 pm.

"The Saturday preceding the Christmas and New Year holidays are exempted," he said.

Redeployment

Also, Mr Jere approved the redeployment of the two passport controllers.

The Immigration boss moved the controller from Ekiti to Jigawa, while the head of the Ondo unit was reassigned to the NIS zonal office in Ibadan.