Victor EzejaNigerians have accused officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service of extorting money from people applying for passport, making them pay higher than the stipulated amount.
They also said the officers in different NIS passport offices across the country attend to only applicants who gave them money while ignoring those who applied directly on the online portal of the agency.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThese accusations come on the heel of the proposed increase of passport fees for Nigerians residing in the country with effect from 1st September 2024.
NIS in a statement on Wednesday, said the Federal Government has approved an upward review of fees for different categories of passports. According to the Service, a 32-page booklet with 5-year validity will increase from N35,000 to N50,000 while 64-page booklet with 10-year validity will increase from N70,000 to N100,000.
Reacting to this, some Nigerians said they were already paying more than the official fees to obtain passport and wondered how much it will now cost to get it with the new increment.
READ ALSO: Nigerian Govt Increases Passport Fee By 43%
In a chat with Prime Business Africa, a man who claimed that he and his wife have had the experience, said they were made to pay more than the stipulated amount in cash and no receipts were issued.
He said that last year, his wife was made to pay N120,000 for a 64-page passport booklet with 10-year validity against the stipulated fee of N70,000, while he paid N60,000 for 32-page booklet that is valid for 5 years, against N35,000 at the Nigeria Immigration office in Igbuzor, Delta State.
The man who preferred to be anonymous, alleged that immigration officers in charge of handling passport also contract it to agents who charge fees higher than what is stipulated.
“What those immigration staff do in the office is not proper. At times you don’t even know who you meet and their procedure. The person will just go and get forms and you start filling. At times, they will contract it to an outsider who collects some charges from you. But the most annoying thing is that you give physical cash and you don’t even know where the money is going to and how much you are paying,” he stated.
“Government will tell you this is the amount but that is not what they collect from passport applicants, and at the end, no receipt is being issued. All they do at the end is to give you one number to come on a particular date and take photograph. After that, you come and collect your passport on a particular date. No receipt is issued for the amount you paid, the account it went to, you don’t know.”
Continuing he said: “For a 5-year period passport which is supposed to be N35,000, I paid N60,000. My wife’s own that is for 10 years and supposed to be N70,000, we paid N120,000.”
He said unlike in developed countries, there is no monitoring of what the officers do and no proper accounting.
When asked why he and his wife did not use the online application portal, he said he was told that immigration officers do not attend to people who applied directly online before coming to office for biometric capturing.
Also, some Nigerians raised similar concerns on social media. An X user with username Idris Adekunle @Shodoluidris called the attention of the immigration authorities to what is happening in their passport office in FESTAC, Lagos.
READ ALSO: Nigerians Kick Against Passport Fee Increase, 10-day Notice
“@nigimmigration please look into the operation of FESTAC passport office. They are not producing the passport of those who applied online except those that went through some of the officers. Someone captured for over three months now and the passport is not ready. Work on this,” the user wrote.
Another X user, Ugonna with handle @UgonnaChidiebe1 said: “Your officers are still directing people to give them money and thereby discouraging online application and payments.” “Is that the mandate given to them?” he further asked.
“Normally, the one you claim is N35k is N100k so right now, with this increment it will probably go up to 200k,” another X user lamented.
Another x user, Akorede Omo Oba called on the Immigration Service to remove corruption in the passport process which makes people pay more than the official fees.
“If this will remove the corruption from the process then it makes sense since people are already paying over 100k for the 32 pages. This is a common knowledge but trust people to act obtuse. The only issue I have with this is the notice period. I think at least 3 months is okay,” he stated.
However, when Prime Business Africa contacted, the NIS Public Relations Officer, Deputy Controller of Immigration (DCI), Kenneth Tyoapine Udo, he dismissed the allegations, saying those who claim to have had such experience should come forward with facts for investigation.
DCI Udo said the service has supervisors in all passport offices across the country that people can reach out to about any ugly encounter with officers in the course of processing passport. He explained that all immigration officers wear name tags for identification and urged Nigerians with such claims to get their names and locations and come forward for investigation and subsequent punishment of anyone found guilty.
He said the service has tried to make the passport application process seamless by making it possible for people to apply from the comfort of their homes, thereby having less human contact.
“What the Service has done is that we have tried to make the process seamless to have less human contact. That’s why you can apply from the convenience of your house and then just show up on your appointment date. So, I don’t see why that is a problem,” DCI Udo stated.
“But even if that is the case, we wear uniform, officers wear name tags. If actually that happened, officers who wear name tags are known by their own names. Each of the passport offices has their supervisor. Have they even reached out to the supervisors?” he asked.
When told that many may not know there are supervisors and who to meet to lay such complain, the NIS spokesperson insisted that Nigerians are enlightened enough to know that.
“When you are making an allegation, we need facts, which passport office, which officer are they talking about, so that we can investigate. I don’t think there is anything like that. If there is, let us know so that we can punish such officer,” he further stated.
On the technical glitch that occurred on the Service’s passport payment platform, Udo said it was due to network hitches and not deliberate as some Nigerians have alleged. He said the technical issue has been sorted out and the portal back to normal.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
