Controversial Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, has devised a fresh scheme to fleece Nigerians.

Using the increase in the new fees charged for the Nigerian passport, he has formulated a new policy that would effectively extort billions from unsuspecting Nigerians every month.

Beginning in August, the minster illegally contracted a freight forwarding and courier company, Greater Washington Limited, to deliver passports to applicants at the cost of N2,000. The fee has been built into the new fee of N19,550 charged for the Nigerian passport and every applicant is forced to pay the money whether she/he wants the service or not.

The new payment regime for the Nigerian passport commenced on August 1, when the federal government also rolled out the new 64-page passport for frequent travellers.

Where the 32-page passport used to cost N8,750 for all Nigerians under the old regime, with the new rate, applicants aged 1 to 18 and 60 and above would now be the only ones allowed to pay the old rate of N8,750. All other applicants (aged 18 to 60) would pay N15,000.

This was announced by the Minister of Interior at the launch of the 64- page passport by President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa on July 29. The minister said further that the 64-page passport would cost N20,000 while change of data for reasons other than marriage or divorce would attract a N30,000 processing fee.

What Moro failed to tell his audience, including President Jonathan, is that Nigerians would now be forced to pay N2,000 to have their passports delivered to their homes.
Our investigations indicate that the total amount paid for the passport is N15,600, including bank charges.

An applicant is expected to indicate if he prefers to pick up his/her passport personally or would like it delivered. However, whatever option is chosen, the N2,000 for delivery has to be paid. Many applicants who say they would pick up their passports because they do not want any delay are
still being made to pay the N2,000.

By the new system, after filling the application forms and making necessary payments, applicants are expected to go to the Greater Washington office at the passport office where the application is made to submit contact address for the delivery of their passports.

However, there are many things wrong with the entire arrangement of having a private company deliver passports to citizens. First, from icirnigeria.org investigations, the minister did not go through due process in awarding the contract to deliver passports to applicants to Greater Washington as there was no advertisement or bidding process. The company was exclusively the minister’s choice.

Also, what is now being made to look like a government policy did not arise as a result of a need because Nigerians did not demand that their passports be delivered to them in their homes. Sources in NIS passport offices said that there were never any complaints from applicants about personally picking up their passports.

Besides, if the new policy were to be given any consideration at all, then the Immigration Service would have been best placed to perform that task.
First, all Immigration passport offices across the country have both issuance and collection centres. More important, the NIS also has an office in all the local governments of the country and is already equipped to render the service. What would be required would be to strengthen its capacity to enable it to deliver.

This is even truer as investigations revealed that Greater Washington only has three members of staff and two motorcycles attached to each passport office in the state.
This is inadequate to service even the state capital. For instance, Kano State, with its huge land mass and population and Lagos, which has a vast population, will stretch the inadequate arrangements to the limits.

There is also the issue of applicants who apply for passports in places where they are not resident. For example, in the case of an applicant who lives in Kano but applies for a passport while on holiday in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, would the delivery company deliver his passport to him in
Kano?

Another problem with the new system is that although it looks like Nigerians are given an option of choosing whether they would collect their passports personally or have them delivered, the reality is that whatever option applicant choses, he/she still pays the N2,000.

Our investigation reveals that at least in Abuja and Lagos where our reporters monitored the passport collection process, most people still go to physically collect their passports, meaning that they had paid Greater Washington for services not rendered.

An equally important point is that just in order to ensure that a private company benefits from passport issuance, the minister, and the federal government by implication, has sacrificed all the gains of the last 10 years to deliver a passport within 24 to 48 hours after application.

With the new system, the time an applicant gets his/her passport depends on how long it takes the delivery company to locate his/her address. However, for some officials of the Immigration Service who spoke to the
iicirnigeria.org on the condition of anonymity, the most worrying aspect of the whole scheme is that a security document which contains the bio data of Nigerians is being handed over to a private company. That could have grave security implications, they observed.



More at:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/168647-investigation-minister-abba-moro-in-fresh-scandal-defrauding-nigerians-of-billions.html

Yet again, jonathan looks the other way. Pity.

that nigeria for u, politicians looting our tresure since AD1300

Jonathan and Deizani, David Mark and Abba Moro.

Anyone surprised??

This man wants to kill us in this country. So immigration money is gone just like that!!!Nawa oh it's well

vicmela: This man wants to kill us in this country. So immigration money is gone just like that!!!Nawa oh it's well

It is not well and will never be until we get such crooks like Moro, Mark, Jo, Madueke, Lawal, and the rest of the horde of the Abuja gang out of the corridors of power.

Nigerians will have to endure with all this loot and corruption till 2019. I see no way APC can defeat GEJ in 2015. Left to me, he won't come back to that office.

Ok sowie

urhoboman: Nigerians will have to endure with all this loot and corruption till 2019. I see no way APC can defeat GEJ in 2015. Left to me, he won't come back to that office.

Just play your part and forget the rest. Cast your vote against him. The millions of votes one gets in an election is an aggregation of individual votes.

Thieves running down Nigeria since 1999

As usual notin will happen.
Nigerians would kip paying dis 2k until anoda minister increases it to 4k.
SMH 4 Naija