A lady has taken to Twitter to expose a syndicate of immigration officers who extort young Nigerians below 40 travelling to Dubai.
Tweeting with @Darbyy_, the lady alleged that was forced to transfer N10,000 before the officials could stamp her passport at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in September.
Read her full account: “Been wanting to tweet about this but I’ve been too lazy to come up with a write-up. Right now, I don’t care about a catchy copy, I’m just here to expose another group of people that won’t allow this country to move forward.
Are you under 40, travelling to Dubai?
Read
After checking in, I moved to the immigration section just before the boarding gate, to get my biometrics done and my passport stamped. There’s just one queue but different booths, I’m just there pressing my phone and waiting in line till it’s my turn…
This immigration officer walks up to me and says, “move there”, he points at a counter on the opposite side of where I’m standing, there were 2 people before me on the queue, I didn’t really think about why he skipped them and came to me…
I was just happy to get done and go and go and sit down, I was tired of the waka waka. This counter he moved me to, zero queue. I got to the counter, greeted the immigration officer in the booth and handed him my passport.
Next thing, “Hmm where are you travelling to?”. I responded, “Dubai sir”. He made a face while proceeding to scan my data page. “Hmm but are you up to 40?”, I smiled and answered, “No sir, you’re with my passport, I’m not 40😊”. He looks at my passport and looks at me…
“Ehn so how come you’re going to Dubai, Dubai is not accepting Nigerians under 40. Let me see your visa”. I handed him a printed copy of my visa, he looked at it and continued the process, “place your right four fingers on the scanner”, I did.
After he’s done with the biometric process, he opens a page in my passport booklet and says, “this is where I’m supposed to stamp, but I can’t stamp it until my oga says so, go there and meet him” he points to the “oga” and then faces oga’s direction and says to him “oga, Dubai”.
I took my passport and walked towards oga, there’s a young guy and a young babe with him that seemed to be begging him, I’m confused. When I got there, I greeted him “Good evening sir, I was asked to meet you”, He sized me up and said “Ehen where are you going?” I said “Dubai”.
“Ehn to do what?” Lifting his shoulder like oga true true 😩.“I’m going to relax”. This man starts telling me that Dubai doesn’t want Nigerians under 40. I said “but I have a visa”, he said he won’t stamp the passport, what do I want to do? Guys, When I say I was confused 🙁
I face the lady and the guy that were with him before me, “what’s this about”, they whispered, “you know these people, they just want us to settle them”. My head became hot, settle them as how? I have a visa!!! Abi what’s really going on here🤔.
The lady and the guy moved to oga and started talking to him (looked like they were negotiating), I was hearing “something something hundred dollars”, in my head, I’m laughing like “huh? what is this really?”. I’m now pacing and pressing my phone, some more people joined us…
It was then I noticed all the people they had brought to this aisle were young and going to Dubai🤦🏾♀️ it was all a plan to use fear to exploit us. The couple got their passport stamped after paying, oga turned to me and said “it’s in your hands how much do you have?”
It also clicked that the 2 people before me on the queue earlier were older, that’s why they were skipped ugh. Realizing what these people were doing made me so upset. I looked at him and said “sir, this money you want to collect from me now, is that what will make Dubai accept me?”
He told me my mouth was sharp and I should stand aside so he could attend to those who were “ready”. Everyone else seemed to be begging them so I was pretty much alone in that fight, I succumbed and said “I have 5k”. He laughed at me and looked away, then I said “I have 10”.
“That your 10k is too small oh, add something”. He said a whole lot more about how someone like me going to Dubai should have money but I’m just trying to wrap this up. He called the first immigration officer that took me out of the queue and said “she wants to transfer 10k”.
When I tell you this was all planned, down to the account number. It wasn’t theirs, This was the name on the account they gave me (photo inserted). After I had paid, they stamped my passport. Isn’t this crazy??? That someone with a visa had to pay to get their passport stamped?🤦🏾♀️
We can start the change we seek, as citizens, it’s important that we know our rights and enforce them. If you have to be in Dubai this period (under 40), I paid so you don’t have to. This is the man (referred to as oga in this thread)
@nigimmigration
Please Retweet.”
Corruption In higher places