The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says it apprehended three suspected passport racketeers, Etaoghere Cyril, Okunika Joy and Adehaka Blessing, for duping people in Ondo. 

The NIS spokesman in Ondo stated this Tuesday at the command’s headquarters in Akure, revealing that suspects were arrested after charging exorbitant fees from some applicants seeking to get passports. 

He said the suspects would be handed over to the police.

Mr Alebiosu revealed that the suspects charged N80,500 for a 32-page five-year passport, N100,500 for 64 64-page five-year passport, and N165,000 for a 64-page 10-year passport. 

The NIS official noted that the crime committed by the three suspects was against the widely publicised cost of a passport on the Nigeria Immigration Service website.

According to Mr Alebiosu, the trio were arrested after a series of complaints at the NIS passport office in Akure that these people still capitalize on the previous lapses in the passport administration to dupe unsuspecting members of the public.

“Upon hearing of such a syndicate in Akure, the PCO sent an officer to disguise as a civilian looking to obtain a passport to the suspect office where he was presented with some Immigration documents to obtain his data for passport application, which eventually led to their arrest,” Mr Alebiosu explained.

The immigration officer added, “At this juncture, we must make it known to members of the public that a Nigerian passport being issued by the Nigeria Immigration Service is neither a commodity that can be bargained over nor a service that NIS employs an agent to carry out on her behalf.”