“The money we pay is intended to make the PCO quickly approve the applications for printing. They said it was painful that even after paying N10,000, their candidates are still made to go through the stress of meeting with the PCO and sometimes paying extra amounts. Some officers who spoke with our reporter expressed their disgust with the situation at the office. They must go and come back again the next day.
Most times, some of them end up not being captured when they come. But officers continue to accept new applicants who crowd the immigration office daily, wanting to get captured.
The PCO would always say that booklets are not available and that the office was expecting more supply. “But we are not because the PCO has to approve each application before it goes to the printing room.” “Most times, those we work for think we are the ones who are causing the delay,” one of the agents said. Yet, the applicants must come to the office to explain themselves and pay extra amounts. Some of the officers who spoke with our reporter said that they pay 10,000 for every candidate, out of the amounts they collect to the PCO to enable her quickly to approve their files for printing. This is to make them prepare their minds to pay extra money or wait for several months to get their passports. The PCO would always tell applicants that booklets are not available- even when they are, albeit in short supply- and that the office was expecting more supply. Most of the time, that is not a guarantee that their passports will be ready when they come back. She would ask the applicants to write down their names while she gives them dates to come back for their passports. Specifically, the officers charged him prices higher than the normal price for a passport and offered to help him get the indigeneship form and other documents required for N3,500 since he did not come with any.Īfter his discovery, Idris said the lessons would help the service to strengthen the passport issuance process, insisting that having an international passport of a country confers nationality on its holder and so it must have integrity. On Monday, October 18, the acting comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Isa Idris, pretending to be an applicant for an international passport at the service’s Lagos state command, Ikoyi discovered how officers at the command were involved in acts of corruption and extortion. His findings are captured in this ICIR report. For four months, Arinze CHIJOKE monitored passport racket involving the Passport Collection Officer and other officers in the former office of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Enugu State Command and the new office.
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