335 foreigners get Nigerian citizenship

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, approved citizenship for 335 out of the over 500 new applications received.

It was the first of such approval since 2013.

Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau, who presented the memo for FEC’s approval, said 245 of those approved applied under naturalisation and 90 applied under citizen by registration.

He said those approved had satisfied the requirements as prescribed under sections 26 and 27 of the constitution.

He said: “Over 500 applications that we considered, 335 were recommended for citizenship and this memo was brought to council to that effect. Citizenship is either by naturalisation or by registration.

“There are 245 that applied for citizenship by naturalisation and the requirements to be met are clearly stated in Section 26 of the constitution.

“Then there is citizenship by registration and that is what is popularly known as Niger-wives which is for women in foreign countries who married to Nigerian citizens. That is also clearly spelt out in Section 27 of the constitution.

“So, the requirements are there and we considered them. Those who met the requirements, the Advisory Council recommended and sent to council for approval.

“So, today, FEC approved the recommendations of those who applied, 335 of them. 245 by naturalisation and 90 by registration.”

Also speaking at the briefing, Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, informed that government had decided to prioritise water projects inherited from the previous administration for completion.

Among these were Sabke Water Project in Katsina, which had been allocated at N1.7 billion and the Northern Ishan Water Project in Edo State, which would take about N200 million.

He said though the Ishan Water project had been completed and should have been inaugurated, it was not properly handed over as the contractors had not been paid.

He added that N200 million was needed to replace parts that have now been stolen, vandalised or have deteriorated because of exposure to the elements.

“For the northern Ishan project for instance, we need additional N200 million to be injected into the project, which is far less compared to what has been spent, which is close to N3 billion. Once the stolen and vandalised components are fixed, we will be ready to inaugurate the project,” he said.

The minister also said the Federal Government was able to complete Central Ogbia Water Project in Bayelsa State, last year.

Adamu also revealed that FEC considered a memo on the upgrade of some softwares for the operations of PENCOM and another memo to provide information system for the mining sector presented by the Ministry of Solid Minerals.