The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has revealed how an Ugandan woman was arrested at the Lagos Airport after paying $1,000 to illegally obtain a Nigerian standard passport.
Speaking at the Ministry of Interior’s mid-tenure performance retreat in Abuja, the minister said the incident highlighted the extent of abuse that plagued Nigeria’s passport issuance process before the ongoing reforms.
“A Ugandan woman carrying a Nigerian passport was arrested at Lagos Airport after paying $1,000 to procure it,” Tunji-Ojo disclosed. “That cannot continue. Our passport must remain a true symbol of Nigerian identity.”
He said the fraudulent practice was enabled by weak oversight, decentralised approvals, and a long-standing culture of corruption within the system.
“There was a time when some Passport Control Officers (PCOs) had so much power, they could delay or withhold approvals until they were ‘settled’. That abuse of power ends now,” he declared.
Tunji-Ojo said the federal government had now taken decisive action to overhaul the system, including the removal of passport approval powers from PCOs and the centralisation of the process to curb human interference.
The minister’s comments came as the Federal Government announced a new upward review of passport fees starting September 1, 2025, increasing the cost of the 32-page, five-year validity passport to N100,000, and the 64-page, 10-year passport to N200,000 for applications made within Nigeria.
