Yunusa Yabahanze
Nigerian Immigration Service has been one place that corruption is eating deep especially during international passport procurement and renewal.
By Core Reporters
Abuja (Core Reporters) While the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration is working towards curbing corruption in the ministries, agencies and parastatals, little did he know that corruption is still raising its ugly head in some quarters.
Nigerian Immigration Service has been one place that corruption is eating deep especially during international passport procurement and renewal.
Core Reporters report that a journalist whose name is withheld for obvious reasons recently fell victim to a scam allegedly orchestrated by one Yunusa Yabahanze, an Immigration Officer at the Nigerian Immigration Service Headquarters, Sauka, Abuja.
Information at our disposal has it that the journalist sought to renew his 32-page passport and was directed to Yunusa for assistance. Thereafter, according to our source, Yunusa demanded ₦75,000, which the journalist transferred with receipt evidence saved on his phone (August 27, 2024).
However, Yunusa promised the passport would be ready by September 3, 2024, but later requested an additional ₦70,000 for expedited processing which was paid accordingly.
Our investigation shows that when the passport’s scheduled release date expired Yunusa could not provide the passport as promised but resulted to more excuses
Also, the journalist visited the office and discovered the payment slips were fake, displaying a woman’s face when inputted into the computer was flabbergasted and wondered why an officer of the NIS should have behaved that way.
We also gathered that Yunusa admitted to lying and promised reimbursement but failed to fulfill commitments. The journalist in his bid to recover his passport (Old or Renewal) filed a petition with the Immigration Police office three months ago, but no action has been taken.
Several calls put across to Yunusa’s cell phone couldn’t scale through as his glo line was not reachable. Also efforts to speak to the service public relations officer proved abortive.
