Published 12th Dec, 2021

By Emmanuel Uti

Nosa, a Nigerian based in Italy, has accused the Nigerian Embassy in Rome of extorting Nigerians and frustrating their efforts to renew their passports.

Nosa said he paid for a 64-page passport when his wife wanted to renew her passport because if he had paid for a 32-page booklet, the embassy could have delayed the issuance over limited booklet availability.

He said he visited the embassy’s website to book an appointment, but there was no available date, even until 2080.

“The wonderful thing is that the embassy keeps issuing passports without appointments. The reason will shock you,” he said in a tweet.

NIGERIA EMBASSY ROME

The embassy of Nigeria in Rome is a big shame to Nigerians. Everyone need to know what these stupid people do. After writing this they may never renew my Nigeria passport anymore. I don’t even care if they do, but they need to stop extorting Nigerians. pic.twitter.com/Iu69uukBPB
— Tweeter_Headmaster 🇮🇹🇳🇬⚫⚪ (@nosafk) December 11, 2021

Nosa said that to renew a passport, one would have to bribe the officials at the embassy, and the amount would depend on the official handling the renewal process.

“In my wife’s case, we paid €200 more to someone there to help us renew the passport. This is just to bribe them to do the passport. Even after paying them $137, they were not satisfied. They still wanted me to bribe them to release the passport,” Nosa said.

“Upon entering the embassy, her cell phone was collected from her. She was obligated to submit her cell phone before entering the embassy. What could they be scared of? Someone might video their corrupt activities and leak it.”

Nosa wondered why the same treatment was not extended to an Italian lady who entered the embassy with her phone.

“Maybe they were scared she might report them to the Italian police,” he said. “And if the Italian police got involved, their intelligence might leak everything. It might complicate [things for] the chancery. Even the way they talk and embarrass citizens is very bad. My wife told me about someone who had difficulty speaking English. Instead of them helping, he was mocked.”

Nosa believes that if the embassy issued a hundred passports daily for €200, they would make €20,000 daily, €600,000 in one month and €7.2 million (about N3.3 billion at the current exchange rate) in a year.

“That’s a lot of money. This is the business going on at the Nigerian embassy in Rome. Now you know why there is no appointment till 2080. For you to get scanned, you have to pay that unofficial amount. And this is nothing but extortion,” he said.

“Many Nigerians have no jobs and may not be able to afford it. We can’t allow this nonsense. If you don’t pay them, you won’t get scanned and won’t get your passport.

“Just because of their dubious activities, I have refused to request the issue [sic] of Nigeria passport for my kids. I can’t pay €600 for my two kids and myself then pay the official amount of $411. Transport to Rome, from where I live, for three of us is like €150.”

“That’s approximately €1000 just to get 3 international passports. I need to spend over 500k Naira to get three passports because the embassy is extorting us and is quiet.”

Nosa, who said extortion is a culture at many Nigerian embassies, said he emailed the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help him get an appointment but they ignored him.

“I even wrote an email to the Ministry of External Affair and added the Nigeria Embassy as a copy, still yet both ignored my email and I kept calling. At a point, the person that responded on phone knew my voice and started getting nervous each time I call. There was no other option than to pay them the money,” he said.

When FIJ contacted the Nigerian Embassy in Rome, a representative said he would not say a word on the allegation until tomorrow.

“The office is not operating today. Call tomorrow,” he said.

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