The Comptroller General, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mohammad Babandede, yesterday confirmed that his personnel working in the North-east were extorting money from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Babandede at his maiden briefing of top officers of the service in Abuja, disclosed of plan to set up an anti-corruption squad within the service to deal with the ugly trend.
“I am aware of money being extorted from passport applicants and at various borders/check points in the country. What is happening in the liberated territories in the North-east is most disturbing to me,” he said.
“Heartless immigration officers set up illegal check points at the hinterland to bully and extort money from citizens already devastated by Boko Haram insurgency. I will not accept this service to be the second grade of Boko Haram.”
Babandede, who directed all zonal coordinators and state comptrollers to put an end to the practices, also decried absenteeism in the service, saying some personnel had become consultants and contractors while others refused to go to work when transferred to posts considered “unlucrative”.
The CG added that he would decentralize passport issuance administration to allow state comptrollers issue approval for change of name due to marriage, approval for replacement of lost passports and issuance of official passports to applicants in the states, while additional passport offices would be opened in state commands within the next two months.
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