TheNewsGuru

Tag: passport

  • US Consulate in Nigeria seized my passport – Kizz Daniel

    US Consulate in Nigeria seized my passport – Kizz Daniel

    Nigerian music sensation, Kizz Daniel has explained why he arrived late at his show in DMV, America.

    The ‘Buga’ crooner was criticised on Friday after keeping fans waiting in the Maryland venue of the show for hours without showing up.

    In some viral videos, some angry fans were seen throwing things on stage while waiting for the singer for about three hours.

    Taking to his Instagram page, Kizz Daniel said his passport was seized at the US Consulate in Nigeria till the day of the show for some reason.

    His post read: “DMV, thank you for showing up last night and sincere apologies for all that happened. For some reason, my passport was withheld at the US Consulate in Nigeria until the day of the show and previously booked flights had to be cancelled. Same reason I rescheduled the New York show.

    “Just for the love and respect I have for you and my craft I got on the next available flight to New York the second I had my passport thinking I could still make it because I just don’t want to cancel another date. I booked a PJ to DMV from New York to make the journey faster but unfortunately, it did not work.

    “I went straight to the venue from the airport. We could have moved the show but my team and I believed we could meet up.”

  • EKWEREMADU: Immigration investigates organ donor’s passport

    The Nigeria Immigration Service has said it is investigating the authenticity of the passport obtained by David Ukpo Nwanmini, who was alleged to have been trafficked to the United Kingdom for organ harvest by a former Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice.

     

    The service, it was gathered, is probing allegations that the travel document may have been fraudulently procured.

     

    The acting Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr Idris Jere, confirmed the investigation on Saturday.

     

    Ekweremadu, the senator representing Enugu West Senatorial District, was arrested by the UK Metropolitan Police on Tuesday with his wife, for conspiracy to harvest the organs of a minor.

     

    Ekweremadu and his wife allegedly facilitated David’s entry into the UK to transplant his kidney into their daughter, Sonia, who is suffering from kidney failure.

    Ekweremadu

     

    The couple was arraigned at the Uxbridge Magistrate Court in London on charges of conspiracy and organ harvest on Thursday.

     

    The prosecutor disclosed that David is a 15-year-old boy, adding that he was not aware that he was in the UK to donate a kidney until he went for a hospital appointment with the Ekweremadus.

     

    A trending picture of David’s passport, however, indicated that he was born on October 12, 2000. This means he is 21 years old.

     

    The passport with number B00569974 was issued in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on November 5, 2021 and would expire on November 4, 2026.

     

    Responding to inquiries on the controversy surrounding David’s passport, the CG said the service was probing the passport and would soon come out with its findings.

     

    “We are investigating the passport and the issues surrounding it. We will come out with our findings soon,” Jere stated.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the letter which accompanied the visa application of David on December 28, 2021 showed Ekweremadu informed the UK authorities that he was taking the person abroad for a kidney transplant for his daughter.

     

    The letter reads: “I am writing in support of the visa application made by Mr Ukpo Nwamini David who is currently having medical investigations for a kidney donation to Ms Sonia Ekweremadu.

     

    “David and Sonia will be at the Royal Free Hospital London, and I will be providing the necessary funding. I have enclosed a statement of my bank account.”

     

    Ekweremadu was arrested on June 23 over charges he tried to smuggle in a child to the UK for organ harvesting.

     

    The Nigerian senator appeared in court on Thursday afternoon in London and was denied bail. His wife Beatrice is also standing trial for the same charges.

  • American slashes wife’s throat for burning his passport

    A 21-year-old Florida man, Xichen Yang, has been arrested after he confessed to brutally slitting his wife’s throat for burning his passport.

     

    It was gathered that Yang dragged his wife, Nhu Quynh Pham, into a bathtub and started playing her favorite music while she bled to death.

     

    Yang is expected to go before a judge for the first time, but had previously been arrested for hitting his wife in Orange County though the charges were dropped.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the two had only been married about a year.

    Murder

     

    Altamonte Springs police said Yang confessed to the murder and some disturbing details.

     

    Yang admitted to police that he killed his wife, Nhu Quynh Pham, on Monday in the apartment they shared in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

     

    Yang, who has since been charged with first-degree murder and evidence tampering, told cops that he killed his wife because she had burned his passport, according to local outlet WESH.

     

    Police were called to the couple’s home around 8:50am on Monday after Yang failed to turn up to work, and told his boss during a phone call that he had murdered his wife.

    Murder

     

    Officers and emergency personnel the found Yang’s wife, ‘lying in a pool of blood in a bathtub located in the bathroom directly to the right of the front entrance to the apartment,’ according to the complaint, Law&Crime reported.

     

    Yang was later located by cops, and he was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and tampering with physical evidence, according to ASPD police said in a news release.

    During his arrest, Yang allegedly confessed to his wife’s gruesome murder providing details of the knife he used in the stabbing, how she crawled down the hallway, and then how he dragged her into the bathtub.

     

    He admitted in the complaint that he held her down in the bathwater for at least 10 minutes, as he ‘played her favorite music,’ and ‘held her hand’ until she died.

     

    After she died, he started to clean the pools of blood splattered all over the walls and floor before fleeing the area.

     

    Police said the victim sustained a ‘deep laceration to the left side of her neck’ and her stomach had ‘pooled with blood,’ TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reported.

    Murder

     

    Police said Yang said he flew into a rage after Pham burned his passport, and he could have ‘stopped short’ but decided not to.

     

    He told authorities that was ‘not how he was raised’ and that he is the type of person who always ‘goes all the way,’ the complaint stated.

     

    Yang reportedly worked as a technician at Marco Polo Pools in Orlando Florida.

     

    Michael Rathal, who was Yang’s boss, was the person who called 911 and told the dispatcher that Yang claimed he had just killed his wife, according to the complaint.

    ‘Yang called Rathel’s son, Michael Cole Rathel, and informed him he had stabbed his wife, killing her, and was attempting to clean up the evidence,’ the elder Rathel allegedly told the dispatcher.

     

    The young victim was from Vietnam.

     

    A GoFundMe has been created to help raise money to assist Pham’s family for funeral expenses, and to help transport her back to her country.

     

    As of Thursday, nearly $6,100 has been raised towards their goal of $10,000.

     

    In a related development, in Nigeria, two motorcyclists confessed to brutally killing a 21-year-old nursing mother, Chimhurumnanya Udeh, and selling her 11-month-old baby boy for N150,000 in Aba.

  • Nigerian collects passport two weeks after calling out NIS for delay, extortion

    A Nigerian man Fagemi Remi, unable to pay for his tuition abroad due to delays with getting his passport renewed, has now collected his travel document barely two weeks after he called out the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) FESTAC branch office for exceeding the average three weeks processing time for passport renewals/reissue.

    Remi had applied online for his expired passport to be renewed and was captured on 17th February 2022 at the NIS FESTAC office in Lagos. Since then, efforts to collect the passport were unsuccessful, forcing him to call out the office on twitter on the 13th of May.

    Providing an update on the situation on Wednesday 1st June, Remi said: “Although, I couldn’t meet up with a lot of deadlines, wasted time and money but in all thanks to @MinOfInteriorNG @raufaregbesola and the @nigimmigration for their intervention. I collected my passport yesterday 31st of May.”

    “We would keep hope alive and continue pushing,” he added.

    The NIS inability to meet its average processing time deadlines of six and three weeks for first time applications and renewals respectively, has ranged from shortage in passport booklets, to the backlog caused by the coronavirus lockdown and now recently, to challenges posed by linkage with the National Identity Management System (NIMC).

    In addition, some NIS officials and agents have continued to fleece Nigerians, charging well above the official prices for both the 32-page and 64-page document.

    For instance, while the official price for a 64-page Nigerian passport with 5 and 10 years validity period is N35, 000 and N70,000 respectively, applicants are charged between N100, 000 – N200, 000.

    Similarly, while the new 32-page passport with a five-year validity period is officially N25,000, applicants for are charged between N40, 000 – N70, 000.

    Remi told TNG that he paid N55, 000 for the renewal of his 32-page passport which is valid for five years.

    The minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, had announced that under the new regime of passport processing and issuance which became effective June 1, 2021, applicants would have no basis for further communication with officials, upon the completion of their application process.

    Aregbesola added that “special centres” would be established on a public-private partnership basis for expedited passport services. He said these centres would have nationwide spread.

    However, this newspaper observed that passport processing remained largely the same and is characterized by delays and extortion at NIS offices particularly in Lagos and Abuja, as well as other branches across the country.

    Passport applicants who do not have their National Identity Cards, cannot proceed for capturing and are compelled to part with more money to fast-track the process.

     

  • Passport issuance: Nigerians lament extortion at immigration offices, task govt on tackling fraud

    Passport issuance: Nigerians lament extortion at immigration offices, task govt on tackling fraud

    The Federal Government has been asked to take punitive action against officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) fingered in the extortion of passport applicants at various immigration offices nationwide.

    The calls were made during a radio discussion of an investigative report by Daily Trust, which exposed how Immigration officers in Lagos and Oyo states run a well-coordinated chain of corruption over international passport issuance.

    The report says the officials collude with agents to compromise the established process of obtaining a passport for an agreed amount of money.

    Some staffers of the Nigeria Immigration were said to have been secretly filmed extorting passport applicants who were either impatient to follow due process or frustrated by the length of time applying for an international passport takes. The report said they (NIS officials) inflated the passport prices and helped applicants falsify necessary documents like birth certificates and state of origin.

    Political Economist and Public Development Researcher, Adefolarin Olamilekan led the call for the Federal Government to immediately tackle corruption in passport issuance during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development, PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja.

    Olamilekan described the development as evil and dangerous, noting that the involvement of immigration officers in the passport fraud is the height of a lack of patriotism which must be condemned.

    He urged the Acting Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Isah Jere Idris, Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola and the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno, to take punitive action against immigration officials exploiting the system to defraud passport applicants in Nigeria.

    He said the ongoing corruption portends doom for the country as it encourages the falsification of sensitive documents by applicants.

    “The Minister of Interior, the Adviser to the President on National Security, is responsible for this issue because documents are being falsified, and foreigners are taking advantage of this to become Nigerians illegally. The Comptroller General of Immigration must stand out.

    “We have heard so many good things that he’s doing, but this particular issue that his men are deeply in dirty deals in processing National passports for citizenship is something that he must stand out to correct or else posterity will not remember him for good,” Olamilekan warned.

    He called on the Service and the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to enlighten Nigerians on how to legitimately obtain passports without patronizing touts while urging the federal government to harmonize citizens’ data to reduce administrative bottlenecks and corruption in public service.

    Also reacting to the fleecing of passport applicants by immigration officials and touts, an investigative journalist with Daily Trust, Peter Moses, called on the authorities to ensure NIS staff exposed in the investigation are made to face the full weight of the law.

    Moses, who stated that the unavailability of passport booklets from time to time was adding to the problem, criticized the printing of Nigerian passports outside the country’s shores.

    “Today, passport booklets that usually create all those bottlenecks for the delay are still being printed outside Nigeria. My advice is that the federal government should first find a way of printing booklets in Nigeria, which I believe is one of the key steps to stopping all these corrupt practices. “Online application should be made to work. Moses recommended that physical interaction between NIS officials and passport applicants should be limited,” Moses recommended.

    Some citizens who called in during the radio programme from Abuja, the nation’s capital, said the extortion of passport applicants by immigration officials was happening in other states of the federation.

    They had these experiences to share:

    Paul said, “The corruption issue in NIS is not only in Lagos and Oyo states. It also happens in Abuja. Years back, I visited the immigration office in Gwagwalada, Abuja. They told me passport booklets were not available until I met a God-fearing lady who came to my rescue.”

    Charlie: “I wasn’t aware of the official price. I went to the immigration office but ended up falling into the hands of a third party and spent N35,000 in the process.”

    Sanni: “Some weeks back, I went to the Headquarters office of immigration in Abuja. I wanted to get my passport, someone told me to pay N50,000 for a passport booklet, but I didn’t have the money. I walked round and round. I found out that there was nothing I could do. So I ended up paying N45,000 for it.”

    Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program used by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.

    The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

  • FG activates passport tracking system

    FG activates passport tracking system

    The Federal Government has activated a passport tracking system that allows applicants to monitor and know the status of their application online.

    The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said this during the passing out parade of the 47th Basic Superintendent Course, 2021/2022 at Nigerian Immigration Service training school, Kano on Tuesday.

    “One of the challenges of the NIS in recent past is in the issuance of the Nigerian passport. I am however, happy that we have overcome this and have now put in place a seamless passport administration system.

    “We have also activated a tracking system that allows applicants to monitor and know the status of their application online,” he explained.

    Represented by Commissioner, Civil Defense, Customs, Fire Service and Immigration Board, Emmanuel Bassey said before the end of the year, the service would have a fully digital application system that would remove any stress in the process.

    “Let me reiterate my appeal to Nigerians to follow laid down regulations on passport application by going through the NIS online portal.

    “Those who go through touts and unscrupulous NIS officials are undermining our effort to eliminate corruption and institute a stress-free application system.

    “It is therefore, your patriotic duty to go through the official channel and avoid any practice that subverts the due process,” he noted.

    The minister said that their engagement into the Nigeria Immigration Service reaffirmed government’s commitment to strengthening internal security of which our borders were an integral part of.

    According to him, without secure borders, no security measure can work, external criminally minded persons can infiltrate the country and escape at will, if the borders are not well secured.

    He said that diseases spread also from one country to the other through cross border movements.

    Aregbesola urged the personnel to put the training and indoctrination to use in manning the boarder.

    “You need to know what the organisation you have joined, the NIS, is all about.

    As you have been taught, your main mission is to man the nation’s borders,” he added

    He lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for his support to the ministry and by extension the Nigeria Immigration Service.

    The minister also commended the Acting Controller General of the NIS for his professionalism, diligence, patriotism and the sterling way he had handled the affairs of the Service since his assumption of duty.

    Earlier, the acting Comptroller General of the service, Idris Jere, advised the officers to always be guided by the rules governing the operations of the Service premised on honesty and professionalism.

    Jere thanked the Minister of Interior and the Federal Government for the continuous support accorded the Service in its operations and manpower development activities.

    Speaking also, the Commandant of the School, Comptroller Ado Rano, stated that the 548 cadets were taken through modern Border Security and Migration Management trainings, including physical drills to make them fit for the tasks ahead.

    He stressed that members of the directing staff of the school demonstrated uncommon commitment during the course and thanked the CGI for the opportunity.

    Heads of security agencies, traditional rulers and members of the public graced the occasion.

  • Passport: NIS urges Nigerians to exercise patience

    Passport: NIS urges Nigerians to exercise patience

    The Cross River Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has urged Nigerians to exercise patience with the service for sequential production and issuance of their passports.

    The NIS Comptroller, in the state, Mr Simbabi Baikie, gave the advice on Tuesday, at the 2022 SERVICOM week celebration of the command in Calabar with theme “Excellence Service Delivery, a Panacea for Corruption.”

    Baikie, who was represented by Mr Abubakar Abdulkadir, NIS Deputy Comptroller, said that the command always met the demands of the applicants, hence the need for them to show understanding while they await the production of their passports.

    The comptroller said that the customer week was to enlighten members of the public on the internal and external services rendered by the command and for feedback on areas to improve on.

    He listed the services rendered to include monitoring of entry and exit of immigrants into the country, issuing of temporary work permit, diplomatic and tourist visas, and passports to eligible Nigerians.

    Baikie said most Nigerians were impatient when applying for their passports, hence the pressure on the passport control officer.

    “Somebody can apply for his or her international passport online and then visit the command that he wants the passport on that same day; this is not possible.

    “Applicants should not wait until they are in need of passport before they come for it.

    “Most Nigerians come to apply for passport a week to their visa interview and want it within that week and this is not possible.

    “Even if you don’t have any need for a passport, you can have it as a bonafide Nigerian because it runs for several years.

    “Anytime an opportunity comes, you can use your passport and apply or go for the the appointment, rather than come within a short time and put us under pressure to produce it,” he said.

    The comptroller, therefore, advised Nigerians to visit any NIS passport office closer to them and apply for their international passports accordingly.

    He said that questionnaires had been sent out to members of the public with a view to get their perception and areas the command could improve upon.

    Speaking, the Passport Control Officer of the Command, Mrs Clementina Ogbudu said her primary responsibility was to issue passports to bonafide Nigerians, irrespective of state or tribe.

    Ogbudu said that between Jan. 4 and Feb. 14, the command produced 1,617 passports, adding that 281 had been issued to the applicants while others were still pending.

    She said that an applicant seeking to have a passport must meet certain requirements: produce a certificate of state of origin, a declaration of age or birth certificate as the case may be and a guarantor who has a valid passport.

    She urged applicants to always be patient after the application stage, and called on those yet to collect their passports to do so accordingly.

  • BREAKING: Immigration releases ex-Governor Odili’s passport

    BREAKING: Immigration releases ex-Governor Odili’s passport

    The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has released the international passport it seized from a former Rivers Governor Peter Odili.

    NIS’ lawyer, Jimoh Adamu, told a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday that Odili’s daughter, Njideka Nwosu-Iheme, a serving judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), collected the passport for her father on December 20, 2020 at the Immigration headquarters in Abuja.

    Adamu, in a motion he filed on Monday, exhibited a letter of request by Odili and other evidence showing that he has received the passport.

    Justice Inyang Ekwo, before whom the case came up on Monday, noted that the fresh motion was not yet before the court.

    Upon an oral application by Adamu, Justice Ekwo stood down proceedings briefly to enable Adamu get the motion from the court’s registry.

    Details to follow…

  • FG responds to passport supply issue in Italy

    FG responds to passport supply issue in Italy

    The National Union of Nigerian Associations in Italy (NUNAI) says the Federal Government is already responding to its appeal for the supply of passport booklets to the Embassy in Italy.

    NUNAI confirmed this in a video interview with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, debunking recent media publication that over 1.5 million Nigerians are yet to be issued their passports.

    Frank David, Secretary of NUNAI, who described the recent report as a fallacy, said the total number of Nigerians in Italy are not up to a million.

    David said it is however impossible for over one million Nigerians supposedly living in Italy to be stranded for lack of passport.

    He noted that currently, there are 209,000 Nigerians in Italy, 180,000 are legally documented with 29,000 yet to be documented.

    David said that as much as NUNAI, the umbrella body of all Nigerian Associations in Italy will continue to appeal to the Federal Government for regular Supply of booklets, they also appreciate the intervention so far.

    “The publication by the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE) which claims that 1.5 million Nigerians in Italy are in need of passport booklets in Italy is a fallacy and we debunk such claims.

    “The population of Nigerians in Italy is not up to one million. And on the issue of passport, yes there are requests for people who need to renew their passports or get fresh passports.

    “But the mission has captured thousands of Nigerians who are having issues with passport in the past months and that is a great deal.

    “There was an intervention about three months ago, especially in my own city, Modena, we were able to capture about 250 people, we went to another city called Pesaro and we were able to capture 138 people.

    “We went to another city which I supervised and they were able to capture over 170 people. So, if you sum all these figures up you will get about a thousand.

    “Be that as it may, there are other cities that need to be covered and that is not to say that they are up to a million. I stand to debunk that any day, any time.

    “NUNAI as it were is the umbrella body of all Associations in Italy which NIDO should be part of, and NUNAI has been working with Embassies long before the existence of NIDO in Italy.

    “I wouldn’t want to speak more in favour or in criticism of NIDO because I do not know their modus of operandi and how they got their information.

    “NUNAI has been in the forefront of issues that concerns Nigerians in Italy, in terms of welfare, in term of documentation, we have been working assiduously in collaboration with Embassies,” David said.

    Mr Mike Oputteh, Welfare Officer of NUNAI, also appreciated the federal government, the Nigerian Ambassador to Italy, Mfawa Abam, and the Immigration attache to the Mission for their response.

    Oputteh said that Amb. Abam and the Immigration Attaché to the mission have been working tirelessly to ensure the challenges of scarcity of passports is solved to ameliorate the plight of Nigerians living in Italy.

    “We are all aware of the challenges the Nigeria Immigration Service is experiencing, which is not only affecting Nigerians in Italy but even those living in Abuja.

    “The supply of booklets to Italy is not regular, but there are cases where the Embassy gets 1,000, gets 500, gets 2,000.

    “After we have made a passionate appeal to the two Ministers, the Comptroller General of Immigration, we have started getting supply.

    “Before the Christmas we got supply of about 1,500 because I work closely with the Immigration and they promised to give us more, they are talking of giving us 10,000 booklets to clear the backlog.

    “There is an improvement, and the Immigration and the Nigerian mission is working but more need to be done because Nigerians have to renew their passports and get new ones.

    “I am using this medium to continue to appeal to the Minister of Interior who have been supporting NUNAI, the Foreign Minister, the Comptroller General of Immigration to please continue to supply us booklets.

    “At least if we can be getting regular supply of 2,000 booklets monthly, it will help us clear backlog but for now, we do not have regular supply,” Oputteh said.

  • BREAKING: UK resumes processing of visitor visa applications from Nigeria

    BREAKING: UK resumes processing of visitor visa applications from Nigeria

    The United Kingdom (UK) has announced resuming processing of visitor visa applications from Nigeria, following the lifting of red list restrictions from 4am on 15 December.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the British High Commission had suspended processing of visitor visa applications from Nigeria over Omicron COVID-19 concerns.

    However, following outrage, the UK was forced to rescind the red listing of Nigeria and 10 other African countries.

    In a statement on Thursday, the British High Commission said UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) will lift the pause on processing visitor visas in all countries previously on the red list.

    The statement released by the British High Commission contains information for non-visitor visa applications, including student and work visas as well.

    The statement titled: UKVI Lift Pause on Processing Visitor Visa Applications reads below:

    “In line with the lifting of red list restrictions – following the UK Government announcement that from 4:00am on 15th December all countries who were on the red list will be removed – UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) will lift the pause on processing visitor visas in all countries previously on the red list.

    “Due to extremely high global demand, standard UK visitor visas are currently taking significantly longer than usual to be processed. UKVI are working hard to process visitor visa applications as soon as possible and sincerely apologise to all our customers affected.

    “Non-visitor visa applications (including student and work visas) are still being processed within published service standards and we are working hard to meet customer demand.

    “Applicants will be contacted by the Visa Application Centre (VAC) when their passport is ready for collection. They should not visit the VAC until they have been invited to do so.

    “You are not required to book any travel before applying for a visa, or before a decision is made on your application.

    “Those with an urgent need to travel to the UK for compassionate reasons will still need to apply for a visa in the usual way, including submitting biometrics at a VAC. Applicants should clearly explain the compelling or compassionate reasons for the visit in their application form and must alert the VAC staff during biometric submission.

    “If you have already submitted your visitor visa application, and you need to urgently travel to the UK for compassionate reasons, you can contact UK Visas & Immigration for help. Please note that this is a chargeable service for overseas customers.

    “Priority Visa (PV) and Super Priority Visa (SPV) services remain temporarily suspended for all visa routes in all countries coming off the red list. This allows UKVI to concentrate on assessing applications in date order for all our visa customers, and to deal equitably with the increased demand we are currently experiencing. This will be kept under review and we hope to be able to reinstate PV services in due course.

    “Students who may have planned to use PV services can speak to their course provider about options, including COVID-19 concessions or slightly later starts if necessary. However, students may wish to consider making their application early, rather than waiting for PV and SPV services to be resumed”.