By Olusegun Olanrewaju
The last has not been heard about the controversy surrounding the alleged dirty intrigues behind the N2000 Greater Washington Logistics Collection for all issued Nigerian passports.
A retired Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, Mr Ime Nta, who recently confirmed cases of passport racketeering by the officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service Passport Office, in a report, has detailed issues surrounding cases of passport racketeering in the country, especially the case of logistics involving an America-based concern.
According to the former deputy comptroller of immigration who also headed the passport office before retirement, and without prejudice to anybody or institution, the duty owed to avail all relevant institutions was not addressed under the tenure of zero tolerance for corruption of President Buhari but needed to be addressed by the President Tinubu administration.
In a letter dated November 3, 2023, to the Minister of the Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and copied to the Comptroller-General of Immigration, entitled, ‘The Facts With Substantiated Incontestable Evidence Behind Dirty Intrigues Behind Greater Washington Compulsory of N2000 for all Issued Nigerian Passports’, said “The onus of redressing the fundamental un-daunting but surmountable challenges have bedevilled us is this administration with the slogan ‘Renew Hope Agenda’ and the Minister, among others, holds the knife to the solutions as mine is limited to availing you the problems for you to addressed and proffer solutions and not to seek relevancies.”
Nta, who also served as the former special assistant on Immigration and other related matters a former interior minister, Abba Moro, said having been privy to various information through ‘scandalous and malicious publications, he had been fortunate to gain insight into a thorough in-depth and holistic investigation on the authenticity of claims about those involved in the sleaze of passport racketeering, “and proffer remedies for the new minister (Tunji-Ojo) “to transmit to relevant authorities and the president respectively”.
The retired officer alleged that, on the completion of the task, the former minister “distanced himself from an investigation and directed me to carry out the investigation” into the allegations surrounding the N2000 logistics collection business.
During the investigation, he said the team discovered ‘irrefutable substantiated facts’ in some publications to assist in unearthing dirty deals in passport issuance, including defrauding Nigerians of billions
As part of the procedure for completing the task, Nta said the investigation team sent a questionnaire to the minister of interior through his then-Special Assistant on Media (SA), George Udo, by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), on the compulsory deduction of N2000 on each produced Nigerian passport
Read Also:Call Uzodimma to order, NLC tells Tinubu
According to the petitioner, the then minister (Moro)’s SA, George Udo, collected the questionnaire and handed it over to the then Comptroller General of Immigration, David Parrandang, “without the consent and knowledge of the Honourable Minister.
“The Service Management cleverly responded to the questionnaire and returned it to the Special Assistant on Media who forwarded it to the International Centre for Investigative Reporting as if it was the response of the Hon Minister; invariably the distortion on the publication, with the Hon. Minister becoming the sacrificial lamb”.
He added that sequel to his advice, “the Honourable Minister directed the Comptroller-General to clarify the undermentioned: A status report on the agreement between the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Greater Washington Nigeria Limited to know “who responded to the questionnaire that was meant for the Hon. Minister’s response, and why.”
The retiree also observed several anomalies, the company failed to keep to the terms of the agreement and delivery and the panel discovered some distortions in facts, including the deactivation of the deduction of the N2000.
He also alleged the discovery of fictitious addresses, and irregular promotion in staffing service cadres, some cases of which were reported to the Department of State Services (DSS).
“The agreement between the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Greater Washington logistic was not with the Honourable Minister, but entered into and duly signed on 12:06:14 between David Shikfu Parrandang, the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service in the presence of the Service Legal Adviser – G.G Liman and Owolabi Olusegun Awosan – the Executive Vice President for the Greater Washington Logistic and witnessed by Udeh Oluoma Winifred – Senior Manager – Logistics.
Nta also averred that, upon invitation by the then National Security Adviser (NSA), he was compelled to appear to defend some of the findings of the team.
“I appeared before a team from the office of the National Security Adviser led by Dr Bello Fadile – Director, Special Duties, who after my presentations with substantiated incontrovertible evidence, promised to investigate the then Comptroller-General –David Parandang, who had already been scandalised in the international community for being complicit in international passport scam. These are related to irregular contracting, among others.”
This, Nta added, underscored the issue as to the fundamental issues as to why Nigerians are coerced to pay a compulsory N2000 for each issued passport (and they) need to know.”
The retired officer advised the Tinubu administration, through his new minister, Tunji-Ojo, “to urgently address the above subject matter by stopping the agreement and divert or channel the money to the running of Passport Offices, while the AIE (Authority to Incur Expenditure) are restricted to the running of the commands.”
