Senate Summons Malami, Dambazau Over Passport Scandal

The Senate has summoned the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, over alleged passport scandal running into billions on naira.

The ministers were summoned by the Senate’s ad hoc committee on alleged misuse, under remittance, and other fraudulent activities in the collection, remittance and expenditure of Internally Generated Revenue chaired by Senator Solomon Adeola.

The ministers, according to a statement by Adeola’s media aide, Chief Kayode Odunaro, were invited along with  four private companies to shed light on multi billion naira E-passport production and other immigration related issues.

The companies include; Contec Nigeria Ltd, Greater Washington Nigeria Ltd, Newwork Solution and Investment Ltd and Iris Smart Technologies.

The companies engaged to process e-passport, Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card, were said to have taken a huge percentage of revenue that would have accrued to the federal government.

Adeola invited the ministers and companies at a sitting of the committee, according to the statement.

At the sitting, it was gathered that the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mohammed Babandede, explained how revenue generated, running into billions in naira and dollars, were shared by the companies, NIS and the federal government.

The chairman of the committee confirmed from the CG of Immigration that the NIS at this point can now undertake the services provided by these companies as a way of increasing revenue accruing to the government.

Babandede said for the period of investigation by the Senate which is between 2012 -2016, total remittance to the federal government stood at over N17 billion and over $112million, adding, “revenue accruing  to government has increased almost a hundred fold since the introduction of these (PPP) agreements”.