By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Federal Government yesterday said about 159 Nigerians renounced their citizenships in 2022 alone.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr Shuaib Belgore, disclosed this at the 64th session of the State House Ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Belgore also said 150 Nigerians renounced their citizenships between 2006 and 2021. In 2022, however, 159 Nigerians renounced their citizenship.
He said, “We spoke earlier about those who are conferred with Nigeria citizenship by Mr. President. In November last year, we had a total number of 286 new Nigerians out of which 208 were by naturalisation while 78 were by registration, meaning spouses of Nigerian citizens who now have become Nigerians.
“However, going further the Advisory Committee on Nigerian citizenship will sit on the 7th of February to consider another 350 applications for naturalisation, after which the successful applications will be sent to Mr President in Council for approval.
“Now down to those Nigerians who renounced their citizenship, so far we have registered a total of 309. Between 2006 and 2021, 150 Nigerians renounced their citizenship. In 2022 alone around 159 Nigerians renounced their citizenship.”
*Says ‘japa syndrome’ fuelling high passport demand
This came just as the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said the massive exodus of Nigerians out of the county in search of greener pastures was responsible for the high influx of people demanding passports.
The Minister said in 2022, the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, issued the highest number of passport booklets totalling 1,899,683 in over seven years.
He said, “It has a huge impact because there is a heavy demand on passport issuance, and if you look at the trend it is more in the south than in the north and we are responding to it. I have told you that we issued 1,899,683 passports last year and that’s a clear indication of the fact that there’s a heavy demand for passports issuance.”
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*Another jailbreak foil, perpetrators killed- Aregbesola
He also revealed that there has been another attempt to break into one of the country’s correctional centres after that of Kuje in July 2022 and that the culprits have been dispatched to their creator.
Although he did not disclose which of the country’s correctional centres the attempt was made, he said there is no inmate in the country whose biometric has not been captured and that it will be impossible for them to hide henceforth.
Recall that more than 400 prisoners went missing after the Kuje Correctional Centre attack in July last year four inmates, a security guard, and several attackers were reportedly killed after the prison was targeted.
Asked what is responsible for the unprecedented number of prison breaks in the country, especially the most daring one being Kuje, he said: “It is the season. Don’t say ha! I know you don’t want to hear it. Have we had what we are having in Nigeria today before? It is the season and it’s global.
“Why are we having assassinations in America? Bad as it is, it is horrible but in America, people get killed every second. In California within the last week in America 20 people have been killed, did you ask why? It has nothing to do with technology, it could even be linked to climate change.
“When things are hard, people who cannot manage their stability resort to those types of things. You can’t say there is no terrorism in Nigeria, we are managing it. You can’t say there is no banditry in Nigeria, we are managing it. It is because of the level of insecurity in Nigeria and we are arising from it. It is as simple as that.
“The question you are asking, you know the answer. There is tension. Nigerians, just like the rest of the world were kept incommunicado for 90 days straight. Let’s not look at COVID-19 alone, the remaining 120 days were on and off. Don’t you think that those things will have an impact on society?
“And in any case, how to assess a government is this: What did you not do? As of today, there’s no single inmate in our facilities that is not captured biometrically and that is the best we can do. We’re still working on DNA, which is another way of identifying them.
“We have met with all agencies, and institutions that can use the biometrics we have to trace and arrest them. They are doing their best. The most effective agency in capturing them is still the police force. They are doing wonderfully well.
“The technology that we expected will be effective in capturing them is not as effective. Like I would normally tell people, they can only run they cannot hide! If they go out of circulation for now but because they cannot change their biometric, whenever they come out they will be exposed and therefore arrested if they have not died.”
On what is being done to ensure the facilities no longer come under such attack, Aregbesola said: “So, we are doing the best we can to ensure, that it will be difficult for anybody to attack our facilities. You may not know that some had attempted and we have sent them back to their maker.
“Just take it, it is no long game as usual. We are equipping our men to be on their own to defend those facilities. And those sisters’ agencies are equally upping their capacity to protect and defend our facilities. And we’re improving the design of our facilities to make them almost impregnable.
“So it’s sad, we are not happy that the facilities are… but it’s a function of the season and we will be deceiving ourselves if we don’t admit it. There is this popular maxim from school:
‘Tell no lies, claim no easy victories. Is not mine. So we are up to it. So, whoever attempts to dare our will, will not live to tell the story.”
Asked how many are still missing, he said, “Many. There are very many. For details, the CG will tell you but if I say many, it doesn’t mean… what’s essential is what steps we took.
“None of the inmates of our facilities either awaiting trial or convicted are without their biometric capture…If we have your biometric you are exposed. There is no international airport that you will go to today where you will not have photographs of all these people.
”They are on our website, papers carried them, they are on social media platforms. So, what I am saying is this, it is our collective efforts. If we’re all committed to it, in no time, we’ll get them back, every government is patient, the government is more patient than the vulture because the government is not tired of desperation and the government will only cease to be when the world ceases to exist.
“For that reason, they will be identified, apprehended, and brought back to where they should be. One of them attempted to be too clever. After realizing that he has one more month to stay, returned by himself.
“He thought with that we just leave him to go. No. We have taken him back not to where he escaped from but to another place. We have taken him to the magistrate court, and we charged him for fleeing from lawful custody.
“That is a separate charge. He is not going to be free from what he has done, he will spend every day he escaped from the correctional centre as a given punishment. He had thought that by coming back he will only stay for one month and be released.
“This is to tell you that we are not as lax as you assume. We are taking every step to ensure that whoever attempts to dare us will pay squarely for it.”
For infrastructural upgrade, the minister said, “There has been massive infrastructural upgrade across Custodial Centres since the inception of this administration.
“112 new Custodial Centres have been built in some places; 20 new cells have been added in prisons where space allows; and old cells have been renovated to improve living conditions in most custodial facilities.
“The construction and renovation of Custodial Centre walls and perimeter fences have also enhanced safety and security in and around the centres.
“The Buhari Administration has also taken a bold step to improve the standard of Custodial Centres in Nigeria by embarking on the construction of a 3000-capacity ultra-modern Custodial Centre in each of the Six Geopolitical Zones of the country.
The one meant for the North-West sited in Janguza, Kano State, has already reached 90% completion.”
