Alausa Passport Office in Trouble as CG Immigration Orders Probe of Alleged Corruption in Passport Issuance

Corruption allegation on the issuance of passports in Alausa Passport Office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Lagos, has moved the Service

Comptroller General (CG), Muhammad Babandede, to order an immediate probe on the matter.

The head of the service gave the directive as a  response to recent allegations by passport applicants that officers at the Alausa Passport Office were overcharging them in the process of acquiring their international passports.

Babandede, through the NIS Spokesman, James Sunday, an Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, said anyone found cguilty during the investigation would be dealt with.

According to him, "The CG has given a directive for the investigation of the allegations and that is what we are doing. I can tell you for sure that we do not have accredited agents.

"The guidelines for application for international passport are clearly stated in our website. We also sent out our customer feedback number, 07080607900 and email address nis.servicom@nigeriaimmigration.gov.ng for Nigerians to contact us.

"The problem is that Nigerians like to look for shortcut, and so they fall into the hands of people who dupe them.

"They prefer to do things through the backdoor. They need to know that every office opened by the NIS has a duty to serve them."

It was gathered that reports alleged that the passport office has been turned to den for extortion with NIS personnel using accredited agents to charge the applicants above the stipulated fee.

However, inquires at the passport office have revealed that the office do not have agents, rather, they allowed cyber cafe operators to set up business within the environment to aid the applicants.

A senior officer who did not want to be mentioned said: "We allowed this because a lot of the applicants complain that they could not do the online registration nor pay fees through e-Transact.

"So we allowed cyber cafe operators close to our office for applicants' easy access. We adopted that approach because NIS personnel were relegating their duties to assist applicants do their registration which was not supposed to be.

"E-Passport is a cashless and participatory idea. Applicants play their parts while NIS officers do theirs. People are expected to log on to the website, do their payments, bring all documents to the passport office where we take over and process within a time limit."