Nigerian immigration sacks 8 officers and 80 others on trial over passport racketeering

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) says about 80 officers have gone on trial over the collection of illegal fees for the issuance and renewal of passports.

Speaking with NAN on Sunday, Tony Akuneme, NIS spokesperson, said eight officers have been dismissed in connection to the offence in the last one year.

He said the disciplinary measures are part of the three-point reform agenda of Isah Jere, NIS comptroller general (CG).

Akuneme said the CG’s three-point agenda includes passport issuance reform, tightening border security and improving the welfare of NIS officers.

The NIS spokesman said the CG has vowed to discipline officers who try to sabotage the reform process.

“We have continued to punish NIS officers and men who try to assist people for a fee. You can assist people genuinely but not extorting from them,” he said.

“We are committed to curbing corruption and other illicit acts in the service. You will appreciate the fact that if nothing else, the level of awareness has increased in the last few months.

“Don’t patronise agents, fill your forms yourself. We have officers watching and these agents know they are being watched. When they take money from you, tell us. If we don’t take action, tell the world.”

He said employing the services of third-party agents in securing passports hinders the reform process.

“We have tried as much as possible to eliminate third parties so that if you really want, you can process the application of your passport from the comfort of your room on your laptop, android phones and you can pay online,” Akuneme said.

“You don’t really need anybody whether immigration officers or agents which we usually call louts. They have upgraded and become agents. They are still third parties.

“The problem we have is the use of third parties because no matter how much reform you put in, you will always see a learned and civilised person using a third party to process his or her application.

“And one thing they don’t understand is that third parties don’t have an idea of the information entered into your application. This can result in somebody having issues with his/her National Identification Number (NIN).”

Recently it has been a Herculean task for Nigerians to get their international passports seemlessly as large crowds are seen at various passport offices nation wide. This was not the case about six months ago when a kind of sanity was brought to the process of acquiring a passport.

During that time all one needs to do is to book and pay and a capturing date will be given direct from the Abuja headquarters. For instance a prospective person booked around last week of November 2022 and got December 29, 2022 capturing date. On that date he came and within one hour he was through.

But that is not the case now as the whole place is crowded with Nigerians complaining that they paid as much as N75, 000 to immigration officers for passport and four months after they have not collected.

Both the capturing and collection areas are beehive of activities as Nigerians struggle, push, sholve and fight themselves to get this important travelling document.

At ikoyi passport office on Friday, May, 12, 2023 at the collection area one aggrieved Nigerian slapped an immigration officer and tore his shirt. The cause of the fraca was that the immigration officer in question slapped one girl who was taking pictures and making videos of unruliness and chaos in the place. But one the young men who also came for passport collection could not bear the assault on the girl and thereafter attacked the immigration officer.

A female immigration officer at Festac passport office asked somebody to pay N80,000 for her to process his passport. The person begged and priced her N50,000 and she bluntly refused saying that is the price she charges to do passports for people.

Our correspondent was told of a woman who paid the sum of N180,000 to a serving immigration officer who works at capturing section of the ikoyi passport office in 2021 for the passports of four of her children. Six months along the line no passport. On inquiry it was discovered that the officer never paid for the passports. She has to make another payment and the passports took another four months before it could come out around June, 2022.

The woman is yet to get a refund for her money, even after petitions and reports to authorities of the ikoyi passport office and the officer involved is still in the services of the immigration office.

Nigerians are wondering when they will have a situation where they can capture and get their international passports within 48 hours or at maximum 14 days as obtainable in other climes.