BY LEVI JOHNSON
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has dismissed the allegation that condemned it for the disparities in the cost of obtaining the Nigerian international passport for northerners and southerners.
Credible News reported the backlash the agency received on social media on Thursday after applicants revealed that Nigerians in the south pay more to process the Nigerian passport than their northern counterparts.
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Even, the immigration website revealed a large disparity between the amount a typical applicant from Kaduna State would pay compared to an applicant from Ekiti State.
In one of the images that trended online on Thursday, September 1, 2022, an applicant in Kaduna between the age of 0-17 is expected to part with a total of N10,750 for a 32-page passport with five years validity.
However, an applicant from Ekiti state requesting for a passport with the same specifications is expected to pay N25,000 booklet fee alone.
This disparity cuts across several states in the northern and southern parts of the country as seen in the screenshots circulated online prompting allegations of discrimination by some Nigerians.
In its reaction, the NIS in a series of tweets on its official Twitter page on Thursday, explained the cause of the disparity.
The statement credited to the Comptroller General of the agency, Isah Jere Idris, described the allegation of discrimination as laughable and pedestrian because the agency doesn’t consider the applicants’ state of residence before issuing passports.
He said the reason for the difference in price was because the NIS is currently running two Passport regimes concurrently – electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport.
The agency explained that, while some passport centres like Okoyi, Festac, Kano, Port Harcourt, Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced electronic Passport regime, most of the states in the north are still operating on the electronic Passport regime, hence the price disparity.
NIS release reads: “WE DON’T HAVE ANY DISCRIMINATORY PASSPORT CHARGES The attention of the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has been drawn to some stories about discriminatory Passport charges for Passport applicants in the North and South of the country.
“The report is not only laughable but also very pedestrian. The Passports we issue are for Nigerians irrespective of where they live including those in the diaspora. What we do have are two Passport regimes that are running concurrently.
“They are the electronic Passport and enhanced electronic Passport. The latter is an improvement of the former. It is a product of the latest technology in Passport issuance. It has improved security features, a polycarbonate data page and comes in three categories of 32-page five-year validity (N25,000), 64-page five- year (N35000) and 64-page ten-year validity (N70000).
“It was unveiled sometime in 2019 & seven Passport Centres including Ikoyi, Abuja, Alausa, FESTAC, Port Harcourt, Kano & Gwagwalada were immediately migrated to the enhanced Passport regime then. Meanwhile, the electronic Passport is the usual one we have been issuing since the introduction of ePassport in 2007.
“The fee chargeable range from N8750-N17800 depending on age of the applicant and category of Passport. At the moment, the Service is steadily migrating all its Passport Centres to the enhanced ePassport regime.
“To this effect, all the Centres in South-South, South-West & South-East including our Desks in the UK&USA have been fully migrated to the enhanced regime. In the work plan, Centres in the North-West, North-East, Canada & others are getting ready for migration to the enhanced Passport regime very soon.
“We therefore, like to reiterate that there is absolutely no discriminatory Passport fees anywhere on our platform. We advise those peddling such empty narrative to get educated by this clarification please.”
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