The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Muhammed Babandede, has admitted that there is a high rate of corruption in the service, especially the passport offices.
Mr Babandede, who made the disclosure during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday, blamed the corruption on the scarcity of passport booklets.
The CG, however, apologised to Nigerians for their bad experiences at the passport offices nationwide.
He, therefore, urged applicants to make use of the agency’s online services as this would reduce the rate of extortion.
“I apologise to Nigerians and I am not here to defend any officer.
“Any officer who takes money for passports is usually punished but we have challenges.
“One of the challenges we have is the issue of scarcity of booklets. When there is scarcity, the desire to rush over others is there.
“The government is doing everything it can to make sure that we can produce passports in Nigeria and get them as quickly as we can.
“There is nothing I can do if there are no booklets. The scarcity remains an issue,” Mr Babandede noted.
According to the CG, there is a need to create institutional processing of passport and this has led to the launching of the modern passport processing centre in Abuja last month.
“We punish officers daily over this issue but I urge Nigerians to try to make payment online or try to plan your trips on time. Some people come to our offices, asking to get their passports immediately for a trip the next day,” the immigration boss said.