From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has commended the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom for its concerted efforts to put a stop to passport racketeering in London.
In a statement by the Head of Media and Public Relations, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the NIDCOM CEO applauded the efforts of the new Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK Ambassador, Sarafa Tunji Isola, for his efforts so far.
She noted that Isola upon resumption of duties held several strategic meetings with relevant staff of the mission to brainstorm on the best ways to address the incessant allegations of corruption and other negative reports on the issuance of the Nigerian passport in London as well as restoring the credibility of the mission in the process.
These new efforts, Dabiri-Erewa said, led to the discovery that 18 innocent Nigerians have paid between £200 and £350 to racketeers in their bid to urgently renew and acquire the Nigerian passport.
She applauded the new Ambassador and his team in their quest to restore the mission’s credibility while urging Nigerian communities to always visit the mission on any matter concerning their stay in the UK and avoid patronizing touts.
Dabiri-Erewa noted that the mission has confirmed the availability of sufficient passport booklets for deserving applicants
She joined the UK mission in appreciating the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service for ensuring that adequate passport booklets are available at the High Commission.
The mission has resumed the Fast-Track services in line with the global practices for Nigerians with urgent reasons for passport renewal.
It will be recalled that the High Commission suspended services to Nigerians in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in April 2021 following the lifting of the lockdown restrictions by the British government.
As at March 31, there was a backlog of 18,000 applications awaiting processing, which were accumulated between December 2019 to March 2021.
A total of 8,852 out of 9,964 passports were captured from the backlog.