Nigerians wishing to acquire new international passports or the e-passport from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) are in for a hard time. The agency is currently battling with unavailability of lamination materials needed for the passport. As a result, a privileged few pay between N50, 000 to N60, 000 to have their documents processed.
Others, who cannot afford such amounts will have to wait for weeks before they could be given after the capturing process. But even at that, New Telegraph gathered yesterday that a small quantity of materials brought in to the Festac Office of the NIS on Thursday was stolen by some junior officers.
A senior official of the Festac office confirmed to our correspondent yesterday that the plans by the office to issue fresh passports to Nigerians who had done their capturing for some weeks now were shattered early Friday morning when it was discovered that the materials were missing. “There’s nothing much we can do today again. The little material brought in yesterday have been stolen.
I believe it was shared by some of our junior colleagues. It’s frustrating,” he said. Sources at the NIS offices in Ikoyi, FESTAC, Alausa, in Lagos, and Abeokuta, Ogun State, informed the New Telegraph that for some time now, officials of the NIS have resorted to borrowing lamination materials from its offices in Adamawa, Benue, Jigawa and other states “who have less pressure” on them.
The development is coming few weeks after 18 Nigerians died at a recruitment exercise of the agency held in various states. A senior immigration official in Ikeja, who spoke with the New Telegraph, said the shortage of materials was a result of disagreement between Nigeria and Malaysia, from where the material is sourced. It was gathered that the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, and his ministry have not paid some of the fees requested by the Malaysian authorities to facilitate the product’s release. It was also learnt that Germany, from where Nigeria used to import the materials before opting for Malaysia, are also putting pressure on the minister to return the supplies to the country.
Senior officials of the NIS confirmed the shortage to New Telegraph yesterday. One of them, who works in FESTAC, said: “The Malaysians said they are being owed for several months, hence they refused to supply the Nigerian government. Normally, the money paid on each booklet passport goes to the account of the Ministry of Interior, which in turn pays certain amount to the federal purse.”
He said the German company, which was a technical partner of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), lost the contract for the supplies in 2007. “Since then, they have been pushing for it; putting pressure on any minister that comes in to return the supplies to them. But the Malaysian company that supplies it is now saying that we owe them.”
Another source at Alagbon Passport Office in Ikoyi said “only VIPS now get the passports,” adding that the few materials they receive are “reserved by some big guys here for some people who can afford to pay”. New Telegraph was also told that the Lagos offices are running short of even booklets.
A senior NIS official said, “It is double tragedy as we don’t have either booklets or laminate.” The laminate is the material responsible for the protection of security details of an individual on the passport booklet. It includes the chip, the country’s coat of arms, personal details of the individual and photograph, among other details.
It was further gathered that the failure of Nigeria to pay for the supplies from Malaysia is also responsible for the shortage. According to a source in Festac, for the past three months, the office has not been able to produce new passports. He said some of the officers (mostly junior) are cashing in on it, “by extorting people of exorbitant fees ranging from N50, 000 to N60, 000.”
When New Telegraph contacted the Nigerian Immigration Lagos Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Odunubi, he said although he heard about the issue, he did not know the reason for the shortage of materials. He referred New Telegraph to speak to the service PRO, Chukwuemeka Obua, who claimed ignorance. He said: “To the best of my knowledge, we have enough materials and booklet to cater for Nigerians. It is left for head of each zone to confirm shortage of materials.”
Source: New Telegraph
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