Halt payment of N2,000 clearance fee on Nigerian passport, ex-Immigration official pleads

By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Is it legal for Nigerians to be paying N2,000 as a clearance fee to procure national passports?

This is a top issue now underscoring the challenge of a retired top immigration officer, who has raised a petition urging the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to check the shroud circumstances serenading the genesis of the imposition of the fine in the first place and to determine whether the ‘imposition’ should continue or not.

The object of contention is how a logistics-based company, Greater Washington Logistics, allegedly cornered a contract for the supply of Nigerian passports to the needy without transparency.

The petition, written by a retired Deputy Comptroller of Immigration (DCI), Ime Nsa, to the Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), dated 5th November 2023, is entitled, ‘FOREWARNING: The Facts With Substantiated Incontestable pieces of evidence Behind the Dirty Intrigues Behind Greater Washington Logistics Compulsory Collection of Two Thousand Naira (N2,000) For All Issued, Nigerian Passports’

It highlights the controversial circumstances in which the contract to the facilitating company secured the contract, the pains Nigerians go through to collect passports, and the urgent need for the Federal Government under the Tinubu administration to revoke the deal, in the interest of national security.

The petition raised concerning issues, asking the Honourable Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Ojo, “and indeed the Federal Government to provide enough resources to run our passport offices (rather than subscribing to) the issue of clearance for which I agreed that it’s illegal and will remain so.”

Under the passport issuance regime, prospective candidates for national passports are levied N2,000 as a clearance fee before they sail through.

But Nsa, a former Special Assistant (SA) to two former ministers, Rauf Aregbesola and Abba Moro, in the ministries of Interior and aviation, insists that the circumstances for the award of the contract were muddy, and thus the Federal Government should abolish it and provide more resources to the passport offices for effective disposal.

The former Federal Passport Control Officer is also requesting that, in the alternative, the honourable minister (Ojo), “should be well-informed that the money deducted for Greater Washington Logistics should be ploughed into the running of the passport office as the only option to stop illegal clearance (passport) fee.”

In an earlier letter addressed to the Honourable Minister, Ministry of Interior, in Abuja on 3rd November 2023, the retired officer highlighted what he said were ‘questionable circumstances’ in which the US-based company secured the deal.

Alluding to the ‘Renewed Hope Mantra’ of the Tinubu administration, the retiree pleaded that since the minister holds the ‘knife and the yam’, he should prevail on the president to take urgent action on the matter.

He said his ‘ordeal’ in the whole affair, as an ex-immigration attaché and board member of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) started sometime in September 2014 when he was unilaterally drafted by Interior Minister, Abba Moro, to investigate the source of some publications in the media that he was involved in a multi-billion naira scam.

Nta wrote in the petition, “On the ministerial approval to carry out a thorough in-depth and holistic investigation on the authenticity of the story, those involved and proffer remedies for him to transmit to the relevant authorities and the president respectively, the then Hon. Minister distanced himself from the investigation and directed me to carry out the investigation.”

His findings, he states, included the discovery that a questionnaire had been forwarded to the Hon. Minister of Interior, through his special assistant on media, George Udo, by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting on the deduction of compulsory N2,000 on each of the produced Nigerian passports.

It was later discovered that somebody had responded to the questionnaire directed to the minister without his probable knowledge, and when the anomaly was discovered, the minister directed the then Comptroller-general to give a clarification on the status of the agreement between the immigration service and Greater Washington Nigeria Ltd, and to know who responded to the questionnaire “that was meant for the Hon. Minister’s response and why.”

The alarm was thus sounded. It was discovered that the service only received a proposal from Messrs Greater Washington logistics to offer direct home delivery services for passports issued to applicants., and in conjunction with the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST-EMS), “primarily to ensure the authentic and traceable addresses of applicants”.

“The company also showcased how physical dispatch delivery of the passports from the NIS issuing centres by trained postal staff to ensure an on-site verification to authenticate the applicant’s home/office address as provided to the NIS while applying for international passports,” he notes.

Nta submitted that his investigation exonerated the minister of the allegations against him, placing the blame at the doorsteps of the “Immigration CG responsible for e-passport delivery/address verification”.

Findings also showed that the company, incorporated in 2012 by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), was principally Nigerian-owned, with directors in Adenike Perpetual Awosan (the daughter of a retired Deputy Comptroller-General, NIS, Dr. Babajide Brown); Ebunoluwa Awosani (the husband of Adenike and an in-law to Dr Brown); Pastor Ghandi Okay (the Resident Pastor of Redeemed Church, USA); Titi Adebiyi (Wife of Prof. Adebeyi, then Senior Pastor to President Goodluck Jonathan on Special Duties) and titi Oseni, former speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly.

It was discovered, the ex-official said, that the agreement between NIS and Greater Washington was not with the minister “but entered and duly signed on 12:06:14 between David Parrandang, the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service in the presence of the Senior Legal Adviser, G.G Liman and Owolabi Olusegun Awosan, the Executive Vice President of Greater Washington logistics and witnessed by Udeh Oluoma Winifred – senior Manager, Logistics.”

The then CG, Parradang, was investigated for the trouble, following a media outcry.

Now, the objects of Nta’s petition include, after failures at compromising his personality, “Nigerians who are coerced to pay the compulsory N2,000 for each issued passport need to know how much money was paid from the inception of the agreement signed on June 12, 2014, till date, “or in the alternative multiply the N2,000 on each passport issued.”

Two, how much money was remitted to each of the mentioned beneficiaries?

Three, substantiated incontrovertible evidence on services rendered by Greater Washington Logistics to justify the money collected as one of the bases for the contract agreement.

Fourth, the stage of work on the building of a location database system for the Service which was part of the contractual agreement that was entered by the service and Greater Washington Logistics Ltd.

Fifth, the particulars and schedules of Networks Solutions and National e-Government Strategies are limited in the tripartite agreement and particulars of signatories.

Sixth. Professional proficiency, financial, and background profiles of Greater Washington Logistics, to offer security-related services as the particulars of the directors attached as appendix 8a from one tribe and family.

Lastly, the identity of the Executive President since records only show the identity of the Vice-President in the control agreement.

In the concluding segment of his petition, the retired immigration officer, gave ‘categorical’ and ‘unequivocal’ advice to the Honourable Minister of Interior “to urgently address the above subject matter by stopping the agreement and diverting the money to the running of passport offices, while the AIE (Authority to Incur Expenditure) are restricted to the running of the commands”.

He also pleads that, in the absence of enough funds to run the passport offices, “the issues raised in the publication of ThisNigeria (newspaper) captioned ‘Passport Racketeering Thrives, Mars Minister Tunjo-Ojo’s Intervention’ and ‘Top Immigration Retiree Confirms ThisNigeria passport racketeering report, reveals Rot in NIS’, among others, such as ‘Nepotism Causes Immigration Recruitment Fiasco, NIS Chief Superintendent’; ‘Recruitment: NIS Sponsoring Media Campaign Against Moro’; should be actively considered.

“My courage and sincerity to tell Nigerians the truth prompted an official invitation by the then Majority Leader, now a Chief of Staff, in the letter dated October 2015 captioned, ‘Recruitment Stampede – Investigation Activities Invitation Letter Re: Mr Ime Nta -Assistant Comptroller of Immigration’