Immigration command denies charging higher fees for passports

The Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has denied an allegation that the command only issued passports to those willing to pay higher than the official rate.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Immigration Olajide Omotayo, denied the allegation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in his office in Ibadan on Monday.

NAN reports that the command has since October been facing shortage of passport booklets, a situation which has caused some applicants to either miss or have their appointments cancelled at various embassies.

Some passport applicants who spoke with NAN on condition of anonymity, however, alleged that officials of the command only rendered services to “who-is-who” and also collected higher fees.

Omotayo described the allegation “as baseless, unfounded and existing only in the imagination of those spreading the rumour”.

He, however, said the matter of scarcity of passport booklets was beyond the command.

“The problem is not limited to Oyo State Command alone. It is beyond any command.

”When there is scarcity like this, we just appeal to passport applicants to be patient.

“It is unfortunate that some could not meet up with their appointments at the embassies, but like I said, the issue is beyond our command.

“If you read newspapers and even online news you will see that the scarcity is not peculiar to Oyo command alone.

“We are using this medium to appeal to members of the public who wish to obtain passport to take it easy.

”As soon as booklets are available, everybody will be accommodated,” he said

Omotayo said that the scarcity of passport booklets had never been this bad and hoped that the situation would improve.

He urged passport applicants to go ahead with their payments and have their capturing done, emphasising that they would be attended to on a first-come-first-served basis once the booklets were available.