There are more than four thousand passport applications in the Passport Control Office in Ikoyi, Lagos State, without follow-up by their owners.

Passport Control Officer, Kayode Eniolorunda, said this while reacting to the directive by Immigration Comptroller-General on passport backlog during an interaction with Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CRAN) in Lagos.

Comptroller-General, Muhammad Babandede, gave passport control officers at home and abroad, forty-eight hours to clear the backlog of passport applications.

The service spokesman, Ekpedeme King, who gave the C-G’s order in a statement, said the directive followed complaints by passport applicants.

Eniolorunda said many people put up applications to secure Nigeria International Passports without following it up to completion.

On the alleged issuance of fake passports to Nigerians, he blamed individual applicants who patronise touts at the entrance of the office.

Eniolorunda, who expressed sadness over some educated persons being victims of fake passport, stressed the need for applicants to always reach the right office before making payment.

He said his operatives arrested suspected touts around the passport office on a daily basis and so warned applicants against their activities.

Eniolorunda commended the media for enlightening the public on the activities of touts around passport offices.