By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Citing a possible post-election crisis, the United Kingdom on Friday announced that its visa application centres in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, will be closed on March 20.
28 of the 36 states of Nigeria will this Saturday elect state governors and assembly members in a delayed poll earlier slated for March 11. This comes two weeks after the presidential and National Assembly elections in the West African country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.
The affected visa centres are in Ikeja and Victoria Island, UK said in a statement on Friday, adding that customers would not be able to collect their passports on the said day.
Lagos is one of the volatile states where electoral violence are likely to occur. It is also the home state of the winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election, Bola Tinubu who will be sworn-in May 29. For the first time since 1999, an opposition Labour Party won in the presidential poll in the state but the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) which produced the president-elect is not bulging to reclaim victory at the governorship election on Saturday.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who is seeking re-election on platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) of the Labour Party (LP) are top three contenders for the number one office in the state.
“The Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Ikeja and Victoria Island will be closed Monday 20th March. This is to protect the safety of customers and staff. There are no VAC appointments booked on this date and customers will not be able to access the VAC to collect documents/passports,” the statement reads.
“Customers have the option to purchase the Keep my Passport and Courier return services in advance of the VAC closure in order to retain their passport during the period of closure. UKVI will continue to make decisions on all visa applications.”
Priority visa (PV) services remain available while super priority visa (SPV) services will be suspended on Friday, the UK announced, “because the next working day opening isn’t until Tuesday 21st March”.
“Customers should not attend the VAC unless they have been contacted by TLS to do so. The British High Commission offices in Nigeria are not involved in visa decision making and do not hold passports and so are unable to assist,” the statement added.
