By hammed hamed From Osun. The visa candidates said regardless of the new mandate of the Pastor of Inside, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to the migration specialists to disinfect the framework, they actually experienced blackmail and debasement roused delays at the Abuja identification office.
The candidates, who talked in discrete meetings with the News Organization of Nigeria (NAN), mourned that they were made to pay different amounts of cash by NIS authorities prior to getting the movement archive.
They likewise affirmed that the electronic visa application framework had been compromised, driving the individuals who followed fair treatment with no option other than to “settle” NIS authorities to get their travel papers on time.
Some additionally claimed that in any event, when the identification was prepared, they were made to pay one more N5,000 before assortment. A candidate, Ahmed Isa, a government employee, said he had not had the option to get his identification even subsequent to visiting the visa office more than 10 times.
“I have been coming here since September to get a visa since I need to go out of the country. “In the first place, they said the expense is N35,500 yet presently they have jacked it to NN55,500 This is for a visa with a span of five years.
“Everyone is advising you to pay various stuff and the spot is tumultuous. The entire situation is baffling,” Mr Isa said. Another candidate, Mohammed Umar, said that he came for the re-giving of his visa which had lapsed however was advised by a NIS official to pay an extra “consistence charge”.
“At the point when I asked them what the consistence charge was for, the man shoved me to the side and left. “All I have seen here is that a significant number of the authorities are uncontrollable and acting as though they are not responsible to anybody,” Mr Umar said.
Another candidate, who looked for namelessness, said she applied for visa restoration online in August 2022 and was all the while pausing. “Each time I go to the movement office to keep tabs on its development, authorities continue to advise me to contact the individual aiding me.
“It has been baffling and discouraging. Everybody expects and accepts I ought to have somebody who is helping me. “At the point when I let them know I did it on the web, I got the ‘ohh’ look and afterward the term ‘self-administration’ follows me wherever I go to for help,” she added.
Another visa candidate, Gift Ibiyemi, let NAN know that she passed up a grant abroad in light of her powerlessness to get her identification handled regardless of following fair treatment.
“I applied for a visa in April and I just got my visa now in October in the wake of paying an extra N40,000 to handle it. “Whenever I first came to their office, I let them know I paid on the web, they gave me a seat to sit on and I was there for a really long time.
“At the point when I asked them for what reason I was still there, they advised me to contact the official aiding me. I was stunned on the grounds that I paid on the web and I anticipated that no official should help me.
“The NIS has not shown genuine obligation to needing to handle this hazard,” Ms Ibiyemi said. One more female candidate said under state of secrecy that she missed a vital preparation abroad because of the postpone in the handling of her visa.
“I paid N116,000 for a 32-page visa booklet. At each phase of the interaction, the staff request cash. “I paid N70,000 at first and I was told to pay one more N36,000 for adding another name, my conjugal name, then, at that point, one more N10,000 for endorsement of the visa, and at the assortment point, I paid another N20,000.
“At the point when I requested the receipt, the faculty helping me ended up being furious,” she said Another complainant, Alarape Ogunmuyiwa, said that he was at first charged N80,000 for the restoration of his visa, yet was subsequently made to pay an extra N20,000, in light of the fact that the authority in control let him know that the terminated identification was “ruined”.
“I am yet to get my booklet. They continued to say no booklets. The entertaining part is that the official responsible for my visa isn’t in any event, getting my calls. “Presently, I have paid N100,000 to get my visa but I can’t get to it, this is disappointing and I can’t take this any longer,” he said.
A columnist, Dennis Abraham, whose visa lapsed in August, said he paid N120,000 for a 10-year legitimacy identification,
Mr Abraham said that the migration official he was managing said, that however NIMC had affected the adjustment to the date, the change didn’t ponder the movement entrance.
“I’m actually holding up subsequent to paying N160,000 to restore my visa. Ideally, it will be prepared soon,” he added,
“What acquires now is to pay any official who will quick track the interaction for yourself and you’ll get your visa inside the space of about fourteen days after application,” he said.
One more authority let NAN know that the coercion of identification candidates by individual migration officials is genuine,
“It has public safety suggestions for Nigeria. We are looking at getting a Nigerian visa. “Presently, on the off chance that we the authorities included are solely after cash, it implies anyone can come into Nigeria through any of our permeable lines, play the fundamental game, and get anything that makes and guarantees him as a Nigerian resident,” he deplored.
The official, who prompted that intense measures should be taken to check the hazard, encouraged identification candidates to oppose any endeavor to drive them into offering pay-offs for international IDs.
NIS responds Nonetheless, the Help Advertising Official, Adedotun Aridegbe, excused the charges as false, guaranteeing that some visa candidates manufacture stories to scratch the picture of NIS.
As per him, candidates can’t pay more than the authority sum for identification booklets. “Everything are false. It’s ridiculous. At the point when I explored a portion of these claims, (I understood) that a few candidates just planned stories to spoil our great appearance.
“We have officials that work nonstop including ends of the week and, surprisingly, run movements to create these international IDs.
“There is a team set up by the Officer General, Mrs Caroline Adepoju, to checkmate any unlawful exercises happening in the visa workplaces,” he said. Mr Aridegbe expressed rather than the “unwarranted claims,” Visa Control Officials the country over ought to be praised for having the option to get accumulations free from identification applications as coordinated as of late by the clergyman.
He said both the pastor and the specialist general went through restless evenings to guarantee that the excesses were cleared. The NIS representative, in any case, said disciplinary move would be made against any official saw as caring about.
