The High Commission of Nigerian in the UK says it has unveiled new rules and procedure for obtaining the Nigerian Passport by Nigerian nationals based in the country.
It says that this new rules were unveiled following the discovery of a passport syndicate engaged in swindling passport applicants in the United Kingdom in sums of money ranging between 200 and 350 pounds per applicant.
The Nigerian mission said in a statement, “The Mission has reviewed its activities during this period and acknowledges the need to attend to Nigerians who have urgent reasons to renew their Passports.
In this regard, the Mission would resume the Fast-Track Services in line with global best practices.”
It further said that “Upon assumption of duties, the High Commissioner, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola, held series of strategic meetings, including engaging the immigration section of the Mission, to brainstorm on the best way to address the incessant allegations of corruption and other negative reports on the issuance of the Nigerian passport in London, as well as to restore the Mission’s credibility in the process.”
In the same statement which was released today, the Nigerian in the UK also added that “Following the strategic meetings, on Wednesday 19th May 2021, the High Commission was able to identify and break the gang of passport racketeers in London.
“The Mission also discovered that 18 innocent Nigerians paid between £200 and £350 to racketeers in their desire to urgently acquire or renew Nigerian passports. Unfortunately, the racketeers issued them with forged documents with a promise to assist the applicants through a “non-existent Abuja ‘in the mission.
“The Mission sympathises with the past victims, whilst admonishing our fellow country men and women to always avail themselves with official channels in the Mission for assistance on compassionate grounds and desist from patronizing unofficial agents/touts.”
Going further, the statement says that it “commenced processing of passport application on 13th April 2021, following the lifting of the lockdown restrictions by the British government. It said that as of 31st March, 2021, there was a backlog of 18,000 applications awaiting processing, which were accumulated between December 2019 to March 2021.
“Officers and staff of the Immigration Section, worked tirelessly to run a crash programme to reduce the backlog. Currently, the Mission has issued a total of 8,852 passports out of 9,964 passports that were captured from the backlog.” The mission concluded.
