Posted by By JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Full scale investigations have commenced on issuance of the Nigerian harmonised ECOWAS passports and the new e- passport by the House of Representatives, following series of complaints by Nigerians that have obtained the e-passport.
Full scale investigations have commenced on issuance of the Nigerian harmonised ECOWAS passports and the new e- passport by the House of Representatives, following series of complaints by Nigerians that have obtained the e-passport.
Similarly, the House has commenced investigations into the contract signed between the Ministry of Interior and the Malaysian firm, Iris Corporation Berhad handling the implementation of the e-passport scheme.
Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo had influenced the signing of agreement with the Malaysian company after a state visit to Malaysia in 2003 and was impressed by what he saw.
A contract of $138.8million was later signed for the implementation of the Nigeria harmonised ECOWAS (smart) Passport and Autogate System using the Iris technology, while the second part of the contract was for the production of the e-Passports booklets and embedding of the wafers in the back cover at a cost of N2.070, 240, 000 billion.
Chairman of the Sub Committee on Internal Affairs of the House of Representatives, Honourable Warman Ogoriba said that the House was querying the transaction as the Obasanjo Presidency did not seek the consent and backing of the National Assembly before entering into agreement with the Malaysian IT firm.
Nigerians that have been issued with the e-passport, according to him were complaining that the chip in the Passports are of inferior quality, while the company insisted that what they gave Nigeria was even higher than what the Malaysian government was using.
Ogoriba stated that besides the low quality, the Immigration officials and the Ministry of Interior have failed to furnish the House with the details of the agreement with Iris and expressed worry that the contract was lopsided in favour of the Malaysian more than the Nigerians as there was no measure put in place by government to check the implementation at both ends.
According to him, the Comptroller General of Immigration and the Ministry of Interior officials need to clarify the questions raised since the contract favours the Iris Smart Technology officials more than Nigeria .
He wondered why the printing of the booklets could not be given to local printers like the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company and the purchase of certain items.
Ogoriba lamented that Nigeria was indebted to Iris to the tune of $116,687,385million with only $22,056,355 million paid according to the Iris officials, while it was evident that the ECOWAS project had been abandoned.