THE Nigeria High Commission in the United Kingdom imposed an extra “admin fee” on citizens to facilitate the ongoing Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) passport intervention, News Point Nigeria understands.
The passport intervention was launched to clear backlogs involving new passport applications, renewals and pending cases. However, the exercise got off to a rocky start when applicants reported delays and other difficulties at the intervention centres across the UK after it began on Monday. Videos shared on social media showed crowds in Manchester and London left unattended at the intervention centres.
The development was contained in reports on the exercise, while Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Alao Babatunde, subsequently denied that the Federal Government or the NIS had introduced any additional administrative charge beyond the official passport fees.
Nigerian immigration authorities were also accused of demanding £70 from citizens as passport intervention “administrative fees”, exclusive of the NIS official fees of $150 and $230 for five-year and 10-year validity passports respectively. The commission also imposed an admin fee of £150 for lost, misplaced or damaged passports.
The NIS had previously conducted passport intervention exercises in Canada and the United States without reported hitches.
However, when the exercise came to the UK, officials involved told this newspaper that the Nigerian High Commission demanded an additional payment to facilitate the process so as to “generate revenue”.
This newspaper understands that the High Commission bypassed a previous memo issued by late former President Muhammadu Buhari during a similar intervention under his administration. The memo directed Nigerian diplomatic missions not to charge more than £20 for making their premises available for the exercise.
Upon implementation during Monday’s exercise, the High Commission imposed extra charges for admin without approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this newspaper understands.
Nigerians in the UK desperate to secure quick passport renewals booked appointments through the High Commission’s portal, which still displays the fees on its website. However, the NIS, rather than the High Commission, is responsible for managing the bookings.
The High Commission’s current website indeed lists a £70 payment for the special intervention and £150 for lost, misplaced or damaged passports.
Officials with knowledge of the payments told this newspaper that the High Commission collected fees from about 3,000 applicants, despite having the capacity to accommodate fewer than 300 people per day.
Following the protests by Nigerians, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, said he was concerned about the inconvenience regarding the passport intervention exercise.
In a statement issued on Monday by Alao Babatunde, Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Publicity, Tunji-Ojo also denied the requirement of administrative fees as allegedly demanded by officials.
He said consultations were ongoing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that inconveniences do not persist any longer.
The minister clarified that applicants were required to pay only the official passport fees of $150 for a five-year passport and $230 for a 10-year passport, excluding applicable bank charges, insisting that neither the Ministry of Interior nor the NIS had introduced any other charges.
On Tuesday, the High Commission notified citizens that the passport intervention biometric capturing exercise had been suspended in London.
Applicants were directed to alternative centres to continue with their appointments. The development followed problems at the original London venue, with the High Commission subsequently notifying applicants of a change of location to 56–57 Fleet Street.
Earlier, the NIS said it had resolved the “brief technical downtime” that caused hitches in the intervention exercise.
The service said 230 applicants, including 140 in Manchester and 90 in London, who booked appointments were processed and had their biometrics captured.
The NIS said that following the resolution of the technical problem, particularly at the Manchester centre, the exercise proceeded smoothly, even as concerns over the alleged additional charges and the organisation of the intervention continued to generate controversy among Nigerians in the UK.
