Man Narrates Ordeal With Abuja Immigration Officer Who Fleeces Passport Applicants

When Chidi Oguguom, a business man in Dutse, Abuja wanted to apply for his international passport, he decided to follow the right channel; no cutting corners, he had told himself. Chidi had earlier had a terrible experience with an immigration officer( name withheld)when he wanted to renew his wife’s passport. He had paid N45,000 to the officer who promised that within two weeks, the passport would be ready. That was around February, 2023 but the officer did not keep to his promise. So for his own passport, Chidi decided to apply online.

“I applied September 11, 2023 through the Nigerian Immigrations Service’s (NIS) official website after paying N26,000, and I was scheduled for biometric enrolment and capturing on the 18th of September, 2023,” he said.

He had walked into the NIS headquarters only for his resolve not to involve any immigration officer in the process to be tested, and he fell for it.

“I was accosted at the gate by men of the Immigration Service who asked to know the purpose for my visit. I was initially adamant about disclosing any information to them, but later decided to oblige them after the officers convinced me that I might need their help to conclude the application process,” he narrated.

Upon discovering that Chidi was a fresh applicant, one of the men took him to a corner and asked him if he wanted the passport produced immediately or later, and he told him (Immigration officer) that he wanted the passport produced later as he was not in immediate need of it.

The Immigration officer, who was called Oz by his colleagues,urged Chidi to opt for the immediate production of his passport as that would save him time and stress, but Chidi, sensing that he was only persuading him for selfish reasons, declined the offer.

“Before coming for the capturing, I was communicating with the Immigration helpline attendant who had urged me not to pay money to any Immigration staff for the filing process.

“But with Oz’s insistence that payment will make the process seamless, and his explanation about paying for charges involved in the process of coupling and submitting application files, I gave him N10,000 which was lesser than the N20,000 he had earlier asked for,” Chidi said.

Oz told Chidi that coupling a file is creating a new file and attaching the documents of the applicant.

Oz had led Chidi into the NIS premises for the opening and coupling of the file. While they walked to a nearby business centre, the immigration officer disclosed to Chidi that the applicants who apply for passports through the NIS online portal are usually their biggest headache. When Chidi enquired to know why he had made such a remark, he angrily said: “Na people like una wey dey apply for passport online dey spoil our show. Na una dey spoil market for us. Una no want make we see food chop.”

“I was somewhat shocked at those remarks because I didn’t expect that a staff of the Immigration Service who was ordinarily supposed to encourage people to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the government to apply for passports, would turn around and disparage those who were doing the right thing. His grouse was simply that when people go online to apply for a passport, they wittingly avoid paying passport racketeers the huge sums of money that they normally charge applicants,” he said.

Chidi confessed that Oz had really made the process of filling his file and capturing less stressful that day but that was where it ended. Oz had hatched a plan on how to extort more money from him.

“When I was leaving the capturing room, I was asked to return after 6 weeks to collect my passport. I gave Oz a copy of my enrolment number and we both agreed that he will keep a close tab on the passport’s production and inform me when the passport was out,” he said.

On his own, Chidi was also tracking his passport production process through the NIS tracking portal. The NIS official website has a special tracking system through which applicants can track the progress of their passport production. One can track the entire process from when the passport was paid for to when it was finally issued.

“Now, while waiting for my passport to be produced, I tried calling Oz and most times he did not pick the calls, and even when he picked, he would talk incoherently or feign busy,” he said

It was at this point that Chidi decided to visit the collection centre himself. When he submitted his enrolment number for a quick check, he was told that the passport was not yet ready, and was asked to return in a week or two. He called Oz to give him the feedback, and the immigration officer had urged him to relax and not get worked up over the delay.

“After two weeks, I called the immigration man again to check if the passport was ready, and he told me pointblank that the passport wasn’t ready, that it was undergoing an “encoding process.” I asked why the passport was not yet ready, and he said I should either wait for another two weeks or give him some money to “recouple” another file and use it to “force” out the passport.

“He claimed that if I paid him N20,000, he would be able to do some backyard ‘runs’ and produce the passport in two days,” Chidi narrated.

Unsatisfied with the feedback, Chidi visited the Immigration Office on Friday, November 3, 2023 and upon his arrival, met with Oz who still blatantly told him that his passport was not yet ready. He still suggested to Chidi to pay him N20,000 to ‘recouple’ another file and push for the immediate production of the passport.

“I saw no sense in his suggestion and I decided to go to the collection centre to find out things for myself. While I was walking away, Oz said, “If you like go report for Servicom or go anywhere wey you like, you no go still get your passport.” He was clearly jeering at me with those words,” he said.

When Chidi entered the collection centre, he quickly scribbled down his enrolment number on a piece of paper and handed it over to the checking officer. He waited for only three minutes and the checking officer returned with his passport and asked him to confirm its ownership.

“I confirmed that the passport was mine, and the checking officer quickly made an entry of the passport and handed it over to me. This was the passport that Oz claimed was not ready,” he said

Awed by what had just happened, Chidi asked the checking officer why his colleague had lied to him about his passport status, and the gentle officer told him that lying about passport status or deceiving applicants was a common practice among many Immigration staff.

“Instead of telling the applicant that their passport was ready, they would lie just to extort money from the applicant. They would tell the applicant that their passport was undergoing an “encoding process” and ask them to pay for express production, and once the applicant makes the payment, they go to the collection centre and get the passport,” the checking officer had told Chidi.

Chidi added that the checking officer had decried such practice amongst his colleagues and had warned applicants to be wary of such dubious Immigration staff.

“As I was leaving the immigration premises, I noticed a young man of about 25 years, trying to get physical with an Immigration officer. I found out that the Immigration officer had been lying to him about his passport’s status. I engaged the young man and discovered that he had allegedly paid N150,000 to the officer to “expressly” produce a 10-year passport for him, and that for over three months, the officer had continued to tell him “cock-and-bull” stories about the passport,” he narrated.

Chidi added that the young man had insisted that he must either get his passport that day or cause a big trouble for the Immigration officer.

“I decided to speak about my encounter with the immigration officer for people to know what is happening. Some immigration officers will want to frustrate you even when your passport is out,” he said.

Chidi advised that Nigerians should follow the right process adding that if he had not worked with his instinct, he would have parted with more money for “encoding and coupling”.

“The new comptroller general of NIS, true to his words, had made things begin to work. So if you follow the right process, you will get your passport without any issue, unlike before,” he advised.