The Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved the grant of citizenship to 208 applicants for naturalisation and 78 for registration.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, told State House correspondents that the 286 people now granted citizenship were shortlisted from the 600 applicants desiring to be Nigerians.

He explained that the 286 shortlisted people, who are from various parts of the world, were scrutinised by relevant government organs, which obtained intelligence about them from their respective countries before giving them Nigerian citizenship.

Aregbesola said the persons approved by Cabinet cut across various countries of the world.

“The Ministry of Interior through me presented the Advisory Committee on Nigeria citizenship approval to the Council today. And is the first set by the end of this first quarter or latest by the middle of the year another set will be presented to council. But what is it about? We received 600 applications from several people, foreign nationals who have been residing in Nigeria, but desirous of being Nigerians.

“These applicants are from virtually every part of the world. Americans, North and South Korean, Australians, Europeans, Arabs, Asians, all over of the South Africans. Out of the 600 applicants, the Advisory committee approved for the consideration of the council 280. Before the presentation, let me say, some agents of government scrutinized these applicants. The Agencies are the department of State security, the foreign affairs ministry, the Nigeria immigration service, and the state of domicile of those individuals,” he said.