Nigerian govt moves to check racketeering at passport offices, deploys undercover agents

The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has revealed moves by the Federal Government to eliminate cases of touting, extortion and other sharp practices at passport offices nationwide and abroad.

According to Aregbesola, this would be achieved by the deployment of undercover agents in order to tackle the scourge.

He made the announcement at a meeting with the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), passport officers, and attaches of missions, on Thursday in Abuja.-

”I am declaring a zero-tolerance stance to all forms of touting. No applicant will be made to pay any illegitimate fees.

”We are going to embed security operatives, seen and unseen, in all our passport offices. They will wear body cameras.

”They will detect and report any form of solicitations, inflation, improper communications, extortion, diversion, hoarding, and other corrupt practices”, the minister said.