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Nigerian
Travel Passport Photo credit: today.ng
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The Embassy of Israel in
Nigeria has intercepted an organized visa-fraud group involving 21 Nigerians.
PREMIUM
TIMES report continues:
In
a statement by its Senior Media & Political Officer, Tony Obiechina, on
Thursday, the embassy said it detected the fraud through the use of advanced tools
and techniques.
It
said the embassy had reported the matter to appropriate authorities in Nigeria
for further action.
“The
Embassy was able to detect the fraud by making use of Israel’s advanced tools
and techniques to fish out fraudulent applications,” the statement said.
“The
Embassy does not usually publicize issues like this, but due to the number of
people involved and the organized method, it is important to keep the people
informed about these developments so that we can collectively improve the
system.
“These
acts hurt the reputation of Nigeria and elongate the visa processing time for
genuine applicants.
“All
the relevant details and the names of the people involved have been submitted
to the appropriate authorities.”
While
throwing more light on the matter, Mr. Obiechina told PREMIUM TIMES in a
telephone interview that the 21 Nigerians used a forged letter to apply for
visas.
He
also said the matter was reported to the foreign affairs ministry through a
note verbale.
The
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission said
recently that it had stepped up efforts to stem visa racketeering in Nigeria.
“I
am happy to state that documentations in terms of visa racketeering have gone
down tremendously,” its outgoing chairman, Ekpo Nta, said.
“I think in 2013 we seized over 300 passports from this visa scam…..And we have advised the embassies on steps they should take to make sure that their visa application process are simplified and I am happy to state that the UK government found this advice very useful and they sent somebody here to thank the commission. And because of this advice we gave them they have changed visa request processes online world over.”
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