Precious Deborah, a Twitter user with the handle @darbyy___, has narrated how
she was extorted by an officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos, while on her way to Dubai
in September.
In a Twitter thread, Deborah narrated how she was forced to
pay N10,000 to the officer before she was allowed to board her flight on
September 23.
“After checking in, I moved to the immigration section just
before the boarding gate, to get my biometrics done and my passport stamped,”
she wrote.
“I was just there pressing my phone and waiting in line till it was my turn. This immigrations officer walks up to me and says, “move there”, and points at a counter on the opposite side of where I was standing.
“There were two people before me on the queue. I didn’t
really think about why he skipped them and came to me. I was just happy to get
it done and go sit down, I was tired of the waka waka.”
Been wanting to tweet about this but I’ve been too lazy to come up with a write up. Right now, I don’t care about a catchy copy, I’m just here to expose another group of people that won’t allow this country move forward.
— Phenomenal 💫 (@darbyy___) October 14, 2022
Are you under 40, traveling to Dubai?
Read 👇🏾
THREAD:
ISOLATED FOR QUESTIONING
Deborah stated that she was moved to a counter with no
queue, just to be questioned by the Nigerian immigration officer in the booth.
“I got to the counter, greeted the immigrations officer in
the booth and handed him my passport. The next thing he asked was, ‘Hmm,
where are you travelling to?‘. I responded, ‘Dubai, sir,'” she
wrote.
“He made a face while proceeding to scan my data page and
asked ‘Hmm, but are you up to 40?’ I smiled and answered ‘No sir,
you’re with my passport, I’m not 40‘.
“He looks at my passport and looks at me and said ‘Ehn,
so how come you’re going to Dubai, Dubai is not accepting Nigerians under 40.
Let me see your visa.’ I handed him a printed copy of my visa, he looked at
it and continued the process, “place your right four fingers on the scanner”,
I did.”
Deborah then went on to talk about how the immigration
officer refused to stamp her passport booklet after the completion of her
biometric process, insisting she meet with his ‘Oga‘.
“I took my passport and walked towards the ‘Oga’. There was
a young guy and a young babe with him that seemed to be begging him, I was
confused,” she wrote.
“When I got there, I greeted him ‘Good evening sir, I was
asked to meet you‘. He sized me up and said ‘Ehen, where are you going?‘
I said, ‘Dubai’. Lifting his shoulder like oga true true, ‘Ehn,
to do what?‘ ‘I’m going to relax.’
“This man starts telling me that Dubai doesn’t want
Nigerians under 40. I said ‘but I have a visa‘. He said he won’t stamp
the passport, what do I want to do?”
 |
| The Oga |
“I faced the lady and the guy that were with him before me,
‘what’s this about?’ They whispered, ‘you know these people, they
just want us to settle them‘.
“My head became hot, settle them as how? I have a
visa!!! Abi what’s really going on here?
“The lady and the guy moved to Oga and started talking to
him (looked like they were negotiating). I was hearing ‘something something
hundred dollars‘, in my head. I’m laughing like ‘huh? what is this
really?‘”
PEOPLE UNDER 40 BEING TARGETED
Deborah recalled that more people joined them and that was
when she realised that all the people the officers had brought to the aisle
were young and headed for Dubai.
“It was all a plan to use fear to exploit us. The couple got
their passport stamped after paying. Oga turned to me and said ‘It’s in your
hands, how much do you have?‘,” she wrote.
“I also clicked that the two people before me on the queue
earlier were older, that’s why they were skipped. Realising what these people
were doing made me so upset.
“I looked at him and said ‘sir, this money you want to
collect from me now, is that what will make Dubai accept me?‘ He told me my
mouth was sharp and I should stand aside so he could attend to those who were ‘ready‘.
“Everyone else seemed to be begging them so I was pretty
much alone in that fight. I succumbed and said ‘I have 5k‘.
“He laughed at me and looked away, then I said ‘I have
10k‘. ‘That your 10k is too small oh, add something‘. He said a
whole lot more about how someone like me going to Dubai should have money.
“He called the first immigrations officer that took me out
of the queue and said ‘she wants to transfer 10k‘.”
“When I tell you this was all planned, down to the account
number. It wasn’t theirs. This was the name on the account they gave me,” she
noted.
“After I had paid, they stamped my passport. Isn’t this
crazy??? That someone with a visa had to pay to get their passport stamped?”
Reacting to the incident, the Nigeria Immigration Service
via their official twitter handle stated that Isah Jere Idris, the comptroller
general of the agency, had ordered an investigation into the matter.
The Service is in receipt of an alleged unsavoury experience by @darbyy_l at the Lagos Airport. We take exception to the conduct of the Personnel mentioned in that thread. Consequently the Comptroller General Isah Jere Idris has ordered a thorough investigation into the matter.
— Nigeria Immigration Service (@nigimmigration) October 16, 2022
“He assures that [sic] stiff sanctions await any Personnel proven to have been involved in such unprofessional conduct. The public shall be notified of the outcome of the investigation in due course,” the agency tweeted.
culled: Fij.ng
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