By Mustapha Kamara
Chief Immigration Officer, Alpha Kholifa Koroma says they will soon be issuing about 20,000 passports to Sierra Leoneans who had applied over the last six month.
Speaking at press conference in Freetown, he said all those who would be issued with the citizenship identity documents were people who had been delayed due to a shortage which he said was as aresult of the department being at the implementation stage of its plans to move to a digitalised system. A switchover which he hoped would happen in January next year.
Kholifa said they had long approved many applications for passports but had kept aplicants in suspence as they awaited the documents to arrive into the country, adding that 20,000 of those passports arrived a few days ago “and we have already started the printng process”.
He denied any allegation that they were refusing to issue out the ECOWAS documents for some unexplained reasons, adding that they had only few passports to give out to “priotised people”.
However, the immigration boss warned that the documents would only be released to their rightful owners, adding that any one who does not go to their office at Rawdon Street to collect their book would not get it.
“We will not tolerate anyone sending someone else to collect their passport for them because we want to avoid the risk of fraudulent games”, he warned.
Director of Administration, Alusine Joaque, revealed that about 30 staff who had been with the department for over 20 years were due for promotion soon.
“The immigration deparment has been successful over the years because of the vissionary leadership and good team work it has”, Joque said . He assured that they would continue to work harder towards improvement ao as to meet with international standards.
(C) Politico 16/10/14
