The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency annulled the visa clearance procedure mandating married women to obtain approval from their husbands before they can travel.

On Thursday, the NDLEA Director OF Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, disclosed that the requirement for a married woman to present an approval letter from her husband for international travel had been removed.

This follows after the outrage of Nigerians over the NDLEA’s rule requiring married women to provide proof of spousal consent, including their husband’s passport photo to travel.

On stating that the agency had dropped the requirement as an optional item on the visa clearance list, Mr Babafemi explained that it was initially added due to some disturbing issues in “some source countries.”

The statement read, “The entire procedure for visa clearance issued by the NDLEA as required by some countries is currently undergoing review and the requirement for a married woman to present a letter of approval from her husband to travel is one of the items that the agency has since jettisoned as a non-mandatory item on the list. The inclusion of that item ab initio arose following some ugly developments in some source countries.”

Mr Babafemi added that the requirement had been eliminated from the list, noting that the reviewed exercise would be made public soon.

“Members of the public are assured that the item has been deleted from the list of requirements in the ongoing review exercise, which will be made public in the coming days,” Mr Babafemi stated.