Group Hails Process of Issuance of International Passport in Italy,

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Nigerians residing in Italy have commended the Nigeria Embassy for fast-tracking the process of obtaining new international passport, which used to be a Herculean task.

They also called on Nigerians to disregard a viral video that was released by the Chairman of the Human Right Defenders and Access to Justice Advocacy Centre, Mr. Olusola Adegboye.

Adegboye, in the said video, had criticised officials of the embassy over the processing of visa issuance and passport renewal.

However, the Welfare Officer, National Union of Nigerians in Italy (NUNAI), Pastor Mike Oputteh, in a reaction said that it is shocking for someone who claimed to be a human right defender to be making unsubstantiated statement against Nigerians and the embassy in the public space.

Oputteh stated that the author of the video does not reside in Italy and is obviously on a sponsored smear campaign mission to discredit the good works of the consular office in Italy.

Oputteh said: “We want to state categorically that Nigerians in Italy have never had it so good especially with the renewed vigor and effort of the embassy officials in making sure that visa and passport processes are done at record time.

“So it is shocking to see some disgruntle element masquerading in name of human right defenders making false allegations in the social media. It is totally false and baseless. We are calling on all our law abiding citizens to ignore such statements.

“It is pertinent to note that the said official he mentioned in the said video was recently recognised with an international award in Abuja for bringing sanity and efficiency to visa process in Italy.”