The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has attributed disruptions during the federal government’s passport intervention exercise in the United Kingdom to a “brief technical downtime”, saying the process has since resumed smoothly.
Gatekeepers News reports that the explanation followed videos shared on social media on Monday showing a crowd gathered outside a locked facility believed to be the Nigerian passport intervention centre in Manchester.
Captions accompanying the footage claimed that Nigerians seeking passport services had waited for hours without being attended to.
Another video, reportedly recorded at the passport intervention centre, showed a man directing a separate group of Nigerians to leave the premises. Social media users identified him as the owner of a lounge reportedly rented to host the passport intervention exercise in London.
The man was alleged to have expressed frustration with what he described as the “incompetence” of Nigerian authorities, while claiming that he had not been paid for the use of the facility.
There were also allegations that Nigerian immigration officials demanded £70 from applicants as “administrative fees” for the passport intervention exercise.
Reacting to the development, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, said he was concerned about the inconvenience experienced by Nigerians participating in the exercise in the UK.
Tunji-Ojo said consultations were ongoing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that the difficulties encountered by applicants did not continue.
However, in a statement early Tuesday, the NIS said the technical issues had been resolved and the passport exercise had resumed.
“Following a brief technical downtime earlier yesterday morning that temporarily disrupted biometric capturing, especially at Manchester center, and its prompt resolution, the exercise proceeded smoothly,” the statement read.
The NIS said 230 applicants who had booked appointments were successfully processed, with 140 applicants attended to in Manchester and another 90 in London.
The service added that the applicants’ biometric data were captured as part of the intervention exercise.
