Top Immigration retiree confirms ThisNigeria passport racketeering report, reveals rot in NIS

By Olusegun Olanrewaju

A retired Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, Mr Ime Nta, has confirmed cases of passport racketeering by some officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

In a letter of protest forwarded to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in Abuja which was made available to ThisNigeria, Nta alleged unwholesome practices and sundry acts of malpractices by some officials of the NIS in the issuance of passports.

ThisNigeria on Monday, October 16, 2023, exclusively reported widespread allegations that officials of the NIS within and outside Nigeria are enmeshed in deep-rooted sharp practices, fleecing Nigerians who are either trying to secure their international passports or renewing the travel documents, through proxies.

This follows the serial allegations of passport racketeering and corruption rocking the Passport Office of the Nigerian Ministry of Interior.

In Ita’s submission, the tenure and administration of the immediate past minister in the ministry, Rauf Aregbesola, is to be described as the worst in passport management history in the country.

Allegations of highhandedness and poor control, he also alleged, trailed the administration of the former minister, a former governor of Osun State, in office.

Claims to these unwholesome practices and sundry acts of malpractices were darted in a letter of protest forwarded to the new minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in Abuja.

Nta, a well-decorated civil servant, going by the accolades he got while in service, has documented the list of sins being perpetrated by passport officers in the country.

According to his protest letter dated October 18, 2023, tagged: “Re: Passport Racketeering Thrives, Mars Minister Tunji-Ojo’s Intervention, and sent to the Minister of Interior in Abuja, Nta referred to several publications of alleged malpractices and ’embarrassing instances’ documented in the media against passport administration in the country.

Some of these relate to publications such as ‘Inside Nigeria’s Passport Offices of ‘Extortion’; ‘Passport Racket Ruffles NIS (Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) as Applicants Protest Against Outrageous Extortion’; Passport Racket Nuffles NIS as Applicants Protest’, ‘Agony, Pain At The Ikoyi Passport Office; in some national dailies, and another damning headline on the social media platform, Yu Tube, all henpecked at ‘Protest to Edo State Command Nigeria Immigration Service’.

Nta said, “The above embarrassing subject matter (publication of corruption-related issues) is one of the damaging, but factual publications in our passport administration and more are coming, except there is the Political Will, with sincerity and Commitment, to address the fundamental issues I had highlighted in nos 3 and 4 of my submission dated 8th October 2023, captioned, ‘Tunji-Ojo Declares N5,000 Passport “Compliance Fee Illegal” to the Hon Minister of Interior.”

According to the ex-Passport Officer, the ‘curious story’ of the Nigerian passport’s racketeering imbroglio is ‘short-state-sanctioned’.

He wonders how corrupt immigration officers extort Nigerian passport seekers despite the launch of the digital portal.

Nta proudly enthuses that he knows the arguments he was marshaling as to how to administer an effective passport control mechanism in Nigeria, having received several commendations and references from those who matter in the country’s administrative machinery in the past.

Quoting for posterity, Nta also notes that, “There is a lot of fake news in circulation about the service and some mischief makers with the aid of some serving officers are trying to blackmail some non-compromising PCOS whom he promised to fish out and sanction accordingly. CGI promised special promotion to diligent and non-compromising PCOs”.

He, however, notes on a note of regret, that “while an upright officer was physically assaulted for rebuffing sharp practices at the passport office, the then comptroller-general shielded him, as stated in publication captioned, Immigration officer assaulted by colleague accuses NIS of Shielding Accused Officer’, and the government of Lagos State had to fight for him as stated in the publication of a Lagos post captioned, ‘Immigration Officer Remanded in Ikoyi Prison for Slapping Colleague”.

The complainant said he suffered the same fate “when the then acting Comptroller-General, Martins Abeshi, in reaction for my petitioning the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (CID), in a letter with reference addressed to the minister of interior dated 8th October 2023, entitled, Re: Tunji-Ojo declares N5,000 passport: “Compliance fee illegal”.

He informed the minister that the N5,000 collected as compliance fees were illegal, noting, however, that the past comptroller-generals “and indeed your predecessors decades back normalised the compliance fees to run the affairs of the passport offices and other miscellaneous expenses because the AIE (Authority to Incur expenditure) cannot run any passport office for one week.”

According to Nta, “Getting the Nigerian International Passport is now shrouded in corruption, racketeering and irregularities that see Nigerians paying 100 per cent more than the official fee.”

He adds, “Some immigration officers use the shortage of passport booklets to extort applicants as checks at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) passport offices in some states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) showed.”

He also alleges that there are administrative bottlenecks “created by the officers to exploit Nigerians, while those willing to go through the official channels are frustrated”.

Some immigration officers, he stated, often get involved in extortion issues and are usually unapologetic and rude about it.

He reports that there are syndicates in the state offices that ensure that the passports of those willing to pay the extra charges, which go into their pockets, are fast-tracked and delivered promptly.

Nta’s comments followed reports of such underhand issues, most of which are packaged to emanate from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) command of the NIS.

According to them, getting things done through the backdoor is easier at the FCT Command of the NIS.

*Another perspective

Meanwhile, another top retired officer of NIS, Mr Joachim Olumba, in an open letter to the Minister of Interior, has said the problem was beyond Immigration officials.

He blamed the Federal Government and the banking systems for not telling Nigerians that the problem also lay with foreign exchange to procure the passport booklets, which according to him were always scarce.

In an open letter to the Minister of Interior on reservations about the Passport Reform Agenda, Olumba, who said he spent 35 years at the NIS, said, “Delving into the crux of the matter, the obvious fact remains that the major factor responsible for the prolonged delays in the issuance of passport is the scarcity of booklets.

“The perennial scarcity and sometimes, non-availability of passport booklets surfaced not long into the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Before his administration, Nigerians never experienced delays and hardships in obtaining passports from the Nigeria Immigration Service. Passport booklet rationing suddenly began during the Buhari era. And Nigerians became the victims.

“Unfortunately, most Immigration officers never knew what was exactly responsible for the protracted scarcity of passport booklets. As successive leaders of the Service preferred to keep the reasons for the scarcity away from Nigerians, preferring to mislead the public that booklets were available, speculations became rife to the effect that the scarcity was a deliberate design to exploit passport applicants.

“Except for snippets of information that emerged from the grapevine attributing the persistent passport booklet scarcity to the volatile foreign exchange (forex) regime of the Buhari administration, not on even one occasion was the actual cause explained to Nigerians by authorities in NIS.

“This was very deceptive and bad. It’s only politicians that operate in this form of trickery and subterfuge. Unfortunately, the mismanagement of information in this regard worsened public perception of NIS than would have been the case if the Service had been more open on the matter.

“Therefore, Honourable Minister, when you are hollering orders to Immigration officers to issue passports within specific timelines, you must be certain to ensure a constant supply of booklets. It’s quite obvious that the present unprecedented free fall of the naira and the absolute scarcity of forex both in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the commercial banks will not make your timelines realistic.

“You must preoccupy yourself with marshalling out proactive and effective ways of overcoming the issue of the fatal shortages of forex and the astronomical decline in the value of the Naira, both exacerbated by poor fiscal and monetary policies of the Federal Government led by your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).