Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Kemi Nandap, has ordered an investigation into allegations of extortion by immigration officers at the Lagos-Seme border corridor. The probe follows viral online reports accusing NIS personnel of demanding money from travellers. In a statement released Friday in Abuja by the Service Public Relations Officer, Akinsola Akinlabi, Nandap condemned the alleged extortion, describing it as a violation of established protocols. The statement confirmed that a team has been deployed to the area to verify the claims and identify officers involved. The Lagos-Seme corridor is a major transit route linking Nigeria to Benin Republic, with heavy daily movement of goods and people. No specific incidents, dates or names of accused officers were cited in the statement. The Nigeria Immigration Service reiterated its commitment to professionalism and accountability. The public has been urged to report any form of misconduct through official channels.
Kemi Nandap's decision to order a probe into extortion claims at the Lagos-Seme border comes only after public outcry went viral — a pattern seen repeatedly when misconduct by security agencies surfaces. That the Nigeria Immigration Service felt compelled to act only after online pressure suggests internal accountability mechanisms are reactive rather than preventive. The absence of named officers or specific incidents in the official statement further weakens confidence in how seriously such allegations are initially treated.
The Lagos-Seme corridor is a critical economic artery, with thousands of traders, especially in cross-border commerce, passing through daily. For many small-scale traders, particularly women moving goods between Lagos and Cotonou, routine payments to officials have long been an unspoken cost of doing business. The fact that extortion has become so routine that it sparks public outrage only when amplified online reveals a deeper crisis of oversight and institutional culture within border agencies.
Ordinary Nigerians who depend on seamless movement across borders for their livelihoods bear the brunt of such misconduct. Each demand for a bribe eats into thin profit margins, distorts trade, and entrenches corruption as a structural feature of commerce. This incident reinforces the daily reality for many: official checkpoints are often seen not as points of security but as tolls disguised as regulation.
This is not an isolated case but part of a recurring narrative across Nigeria's land borders, where probes are announced after public pressure, few officers face public sanctions, and operations continue unchanged.
