THE Nigerian High Commission in Canada, says it is suspending consular activities indefinitely till further notice due to lack of passport booklets and unruly behaviour of applicants.
The Commission located in Ottawa, announced this in a statement published on its official website on Tuesday, noting that there has been an influx of requests for passport renewals by Nigerians.
“The high Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Canada wishes to inform Nigerian communities in Canada and the general public that the Mission remains closed to the public. The special intervention arrangement whereby emergency cases were being handled on a discretionary basis is hereby suspended,” the statement read.
“We would like to draw attention to the fact that with the closure of the air space our ability to bring much needed passport booklets into the country has been impaired. This is another area we intend to focus on.”
The High Commission stated that it had previously devised a system to attend to emergency cases following directives from the Federal Government of Nigeria and in line with public health guidelines informed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, it alleged that citizens defied the system, disclosing that many applicants would show up at the chancery without appointments and insist on gaining audience with staff members in charge of processing passport renewals.
“On a number of occasions people seeking passport renewal came to the chancery without an appointment and acted in the a most unruly manner, disturbing the peace and acting in an abusive manner, banging windows,” it said.
It further stated things got worse on August 14, when a group of applicants caused mayhem at the embassy, refusing people entrance and holding a staff member hostage for several minutes.
“Matters came to a head on Friday August 14, when a group showed up at the high commission and refused to allow the embassy staff members to attend to those who had appointments. They insisted that we had to attend to everybody who showed up,” the statement read.
“They went as far as holding a female staff member who went to address them hostage for over twenty minutes and subjected them to physical abuse.”
Premium Times reports that an applicant identified as Ruth had been left disappointed after traveling a long distance for passport renewal.
According to the report, Ruth who works as a researcher booked an appointment to enable her secure a new passport before travelling to Turkey but had her plans disrupted when no one attended to her upon arrival.
“The man who I had informed before booking my flight ticket, told me that they couldn’t attend to me because I did not tell him prior to the trip. I spent 1,500 Canadian dollars on the trip alone. I was so angry.”
“I was not the only one. I met so many Nigerians who came from Alberta, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and other cities in Canada. They were all angry,” she told Premium Times.
According to Ruth, several other people suffered the same fate and must have driven a revolt against the staff members of the commission.
“I wasn’t there so I can’t say much. However, it is to be expected that people will revolt when being treated like they don’t matter on sensitive issues. They must have been extremely frustrated. We push people to the wall too often as Nigerians,” Ruth narrated to Premium Times.
Meanwhile, Nigerian passport is ranked 47th in Africa, making it 7th least influential in the continent and 95th in the world.
This is according to the 2020 passport index report published by Henley & Partners, with data from International Air Transport Association (IATA); a trade association which maintains the world’s largest database of travel information.
