A pressure group, operating on the aegis of Corruption Must Not Kill Democracy (COMUNOKID), has called on the Minister of Interior, Mr. Bunmi Tunji – Ojo, to make public his findings on the protest that occured at the Nigeria High Commission in London on 31 July 2024.
In a Press conference addressed by its Chairman, Mr. Kolapo Ogundare and Secretary Mazi Christopher Eze in Abuja, COMUNOKID threatened to occupy the Ministry should the minister continue to sweep the incident under the carpet.
Some Nigerians demonstrated over deliberate delay in giving them dates to come for capturing of the renewal of their passports, deliberate hike in price of the passport from $150 to $318 by officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and deliberately giving applicants between six to eight months before they could be considered for capturing and subsequent issuance of the passport.
Specifically, allegation of graft was leveled against the Immigration Attache, a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration -Mr. Bashir Aminu who heads the London office of Nigeria High Commission.
Mr. Aminu was alleged to be delaying issuance of Nigerian passport to qualified Nigerians in London and its environs thereby causing artificial scarcity of Nigerian passport and demanding for $318 for express production of the passport.
The NIS had on August 7, 2024 seven days after the embarrassing protest, issued a statement disclaiming the arbitrary hike and deliberate creation of bottle-neck by some officials of the London office.
A statement by Nigeria Immigration Service dated 07 August, 2024; had said, “The Nigeria Immigration Service hereby debunks the derogatory news report as false, unfounded and so should be disregarded in its entirety.
The NIS is using this opportunity to state categorically for the umpteenth time that the authorised fee for the procurement of Nigeria international passport in the United Kingdom is $150 for a five (5) year validity period and $230 for a ten-year validity period passport not inclusive of bank charges.”
“The above press release buttressed the fact that the London immigration attache, Bashir Aminu, acted unilaterally without consultation with immigration authority in Nigeria by charging $300 for express charges and additional $18 for processing fees amounting to $318 exclusive of bank charges.
“Aminu has forced Nigerians in London who can’t pay so much to wait for 6 to 7 months to just book appointment with the embassy not to talk about the waiting period after getting biometrics done”, Mr Ogundare stressed.
