The Ikoyi Passport Control Officer in Lagos State, Emmanuel Ogbumuo, on Thursday urged passport applicants to desist from using third parties.
Ogbumuo said in Lagos that the office had eliminated touting in the issuance of passports and would not want applicants to bring them back.
He said the guards in the office premises had extended their security beyond the gates in a bid to ensure that touting did not return.
Ogbumuo said passport seekers should apply online directly to the office to guard against extortion by touts.
He said some touts lured passport applicants into patronising them, with a promise to hasten the issuance of their passports.
He advised applicants to pay their fees only to designated banks including Zenith, Oceanic, Intercontinental and Sterling banks as well as Afribank, Bank PHB and the United Bank for Africa.
Ogbumuo warned that the Nigeria Immigration Service would not take responsibility for any error caused on passports due to touting.
Re-issuance of unexpired passports is only handled by the Investigation Department of the NIS at its headquarters in Abuja.
The NIS introduced the electronic passport in August 2007 to replace the Machine Readable Passport which expires in December, 2010.
The electronic passport costs N9,225 but touts charge as much as N30,000 from an applicant.
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