The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has directed Immigrations to immediately withdraw and deactivate passports of persons who have evidently denounced their Nigerian citizenship.
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Alao Babatunde, the minister’s Special Adviser on Media, released a statement revealing that the decision applies to Nigerians whose renunciation requests the President has legally authorised.
Tunji-Ojo also said the responsibility of citizenship integrity, derives its authority for the directive from Section 29(1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
Consequently, the statement quoted the constitutional provision as stating: “(1)Any citizen of Nigeria of full age who wishes to renounce his Nigerian citizenship shall make a declaration in the prescribed manner for the renunciation.
“(2)The President shall cause the declaration made under subsection (1) of this section to be registered and upon such registration, the person who made the declaration shall cease to be a citizen of Nigeria.”
Furthermore Olubunmi stated that a person can no longer possess any Nigerian sovereign document or passport, once they denounce citizenship.
Additionally, he explained another key point that the action was in line with the ministry’s recent passport and visa reforms.
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Meanwhile, he claimed that the directive particularly aims to close a loophole that let former nationals who denounced citizenship to travel with Nigerian passports.
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