IKOYI PASSPORT OFFICE: Four Months  Magic Under Limah’s Watch

The arrival of a new sheriff to the Ikoyi Passport Office in Lagos saw a different ball game on the issuance of passports to  Nigerian citizens. A Deputy Comptroller with a difference,DC Ibrahim Limah steps in as the Messiah all has been waiting for . The narrative has taken a positive dimension courtesy the four months old officer to one of the vibrant and busiest command of the Nigeria Immigration Service. 

 

 

When Deputy Comptroller Ibrahim Liman was named successor of the unbendable Passport  Controller officer ,(PCO) Controller    A.S Garo,four months ago, not few expressed reservation about his ability to keep the steam running.

 

Tall,bulky ,handsome and black like most of his Northern extraction, Liman have been able to prove many genuinely well-meaning worried Nigerians wrong , through available operational statistics and innovation four months after taking over the affairs of Ikoyi Passport office ,Lagos.

 

Liman not only sustained the heat in dealing excruciating blows at Mafia who thought the exit of the former will create opening for them, the new “arrival” added his own marvel town ingenuity in combating touting ,faking of passport malaise, a stigma the Ikoyi Passport Command appear to have carried about as a corporate image.

 

With the baton of the area Command passed to him in July,15,2021,he made provisions for the  collection of over seventeen thousands backlog of uncollected passports he met on ground by calling on applicants through his mobile phone to come forward for collection. Thus,he was able to effectively , whittle down some of the genuine fears expressed over his take over of the rather snail passport Command.

 

Having won the confidence of the Headquarters that he was capable in term of quick delivery, innovations and sanity,he now set himself another prime tasks.

 

He set the ground ready to eliminate touting epidemic and faking of passport in the area where Tom,Dick and Harry parades themselves with all manners of identity cards.

 

Reflecting,he said ,”Not even American can achieve touting zero tolerance giving the ingenuity by which the touts strategize. But , “I  have a dream of containing these touting. I will fight them to standstill , if we suçced in this,touting will become unattractive for them”,he said.

 

That was barely a month after taking over the affairs of the command.

 

Before his arrival, the problem of electricity was a serious one. The command was disconnected from Dodan Barrack security ,line that affect the production of passport, but without delay met with the management of disco and the line restored back.

 

Having succeeded in that, he bought a gigantic  100KVA generator as a backup to alternate the electricity.

 

Another advantage added by the immigration boss is that the problem of information management that has been the major issue in the past between the public and the service has improved tremendously.

 

By available statistics,he appears to have realized his dreams.

 

According to sources, between August and September, Officers and men of the command who were found wanting of aiding and abating touts or even by any means cut with an unauthorised applicants files were transferred from the command for sanity.

 

Sources say in a matter of fact,the Ikoyi Passport office came under intense pressure between July and September,noting that,Liman operational ruthlessness and information management, nevertheless,beat  the miscreants to retreat.

 

Within four months period under Liman,said sources,”the intention was to try his ( Liman), resilience” over alleged seeming invasion of the area by touts.

 

A senior Immigration Officer who do not want his name in print told our correspondent that’,”Apart from loitering in the area by these miscreants ,they were also in habit of soliciting and harrassing applicants that have come into the area for one business or the others.

 

Continuing,that many applicants has in the past falling victims to these monsters before the arrival of the new controller who now sanitize the area by giving red cards to both unscrupulous officers and touts within Command and its evenron.

 

According to him,a Nigerian-American born before the new PCO’s arrival fall victim to this imposters who defraud him and was issued a fake passport.

 

Meanwhile, Liman has appealed to prospective applicants and general public seeking passport to apply online and channel through servicom department to avoid been falling into wrong hands.

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According to him. “As soon as you paid through  the bank, and you don’t have any NIMS problem,there is no cause for alarm.’

 

It is as a result of this excellent performance that the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON),was amazed by the wonderful performance of this gentleman in which he was giving an award of “Excellent performing achievers award” alongside the commissioner of information, Lagos state