The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) speaking on its routine visa administration and passenger clearance procedures at ports of entry, lampooned those responsible for re-trending an unverifiable out-bound passenger to put the Service in bad light.
The Service said, its Acting Comptroller General, Isah Jere Idris is in receipt of a re-trending video of an alleged incident involving an out-bound passenger at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos sometime in August 2017.
Reacting in a statement issued by the Assistant Comptroller of Immigration Service Public Relations Officer, Amos Okpu, which was made available to CAPITAL POST on Wednesday in Abuja, the Service said, it was making clarifications about the re-trending video of five years ago so as not to mislead the unsuspecting public.
The statement read: “The Service would have ordinarily ignored the re-trend, but for the need to inform unsuspecting members of the public that the re-trending of the video is the handiwork of mischief makers who have been struggling and indeed dissipating their naked energy to portray the current leadership of the Service in bad light.
“Suffice it be mentioned that the said incident was subjected to full investigation by all the agencies at the airport then. During the investigation, so many facilities including the CCTV system were deployed to unravel the veracity of the claims, but nothing of such was found.
“It is however, unfortunate, that some persons now find it relevant to embark on a re-trend of an unverifiable incident of 2017 in 2022 for reasons best known to them.
“Nevertheless, it is important to state that a new dawn has begun in the Service and great efforts are being directed at enhanced reforms that would reposition the Service to a very responsive and proactive agency fully committed to transparent service delivery.
“The Service is poised to consistently ensure that it places robust migration facilitation processes and systems across Frontiers to enable visitors have pleasant experiences at our Controls.
“To this effect, the Service has continued to deepen its public engagement exercises to create enriched understanding of its processes and procedures by prospective visitors and the public at large.
“It has made some considerable progress in its visa reforms efforts and wishes to assure that it will fairly and justly implement the Visa reforms in line with best practice. As one of the strongest tools in modern migration management, Visa remains a conditional approval granted to a migrant by a government allowing the holder to enter, remain, work or to leave a certain territory within a given period of time.
“Consequently, it remains the responsibility of the Service to determine the period of stay to be allowed any visitor into the country. It is therefore, important to stress that there is a difference between the period within which a valid Visa must be presented at any entry Post and the actual period given to the holder by the endorsement Officer at the Border Control.
“The period stated in a holder’s Passport especially for Visas issued at the Missions is really the period within which the holder is expected to present same at entry Post for assessment by the Border Control Officer. It is not essentially the actual period the holder will be allowed to stay in the country.
“The Acting Comptroller General wishes to use this medium to assure the various publics of improved service delivery across service windows while also calling on them to feel free to constantly insist on quality service from our Personnel.
“He encourages that timely and detailed reports of any unprofessional conducts by any personnel be made appropriately for necessary actions”, it concluded.
