Good day people, i know i have never done posts back to back before but i would be off work for a few days so here is today's post, a sort of Part 2 of the last post. This is titled: Oga Prof even you?
Sitting in his University of Portharcourt office, Prof. was visited by the wife and son and they told him that they would like him to accompany them to Cotonou for a few days.
They may have seen the amount of stress he had undergone in the last few years and thought it wise he came along on the holiday. He was reluctant as he claimed, but they kept on piling pressure on him to come along.
Eventually, he succumbed to the pressure, but told them he wasn't packed for the trip (PHC-LOS-COO). The wife and son volunteered to go home to help him pack, and come by the office to pick him up to the airport.
As they packed for him, picked him up at the office and headed to the airport, they must have been excited being able to get the whole family on the trip. The first leg PHC-LOS was a local flight and that went smooth.
They were all checked through and had boarding passes for the LOS-COO sector. So they didn't need to present themselves at check in for the international leg LOS-COO.
The Question: Even you sir?
During the boarding of the flight, with a few passengers to go, it was noticed that Prof. had on him the outdated passport (not the e-passport). Subsequently, he was informed that he would not be boarded.
Observation:
How did you get to the boarding gate sir? Did the immigration officers stamp your passport?
The wife and son eventually went on the flight, and we had to take the Prof. back through immigration to the departure level. The normal procedure is to get the passenger back to immigration so his outward stamp is cancelled.
On approach of the immigration point, the immigration officer inquired as to what transpired (<--hahaha) . After explanation, he made attempt to collect the passport to cancel the stamp. Alas, the passport was never stamped!! So if we had boarded the passenger, there would never have been a record of him leaving the country!
My Suspicion:
He must have realised his mistake at some point and approached an immigration officer to 'Help' him out. Money must have changed hands and off to the gate he came. He had not been stamped out of the country!
He claimed that the immigration officers said it was 'fine', since it was just COTONOU!
He had to sleep in the Airport till the next day, then took a flight back to Portharcourt.
Pay attention to details when travelling people.... PAY ATTENTION!! @lereboy
Thursday 20 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Never overlook details!!
Good day people, so sorry i haven't been up to date with my postings. Since i started this blog for fun, many things took my time and attention off it. To my utmost surprise, i have been getting messages via twitter, facebook and bbm concerning this site. So i would make it a point of duty to post more often.
The Error:
This Lady had apparently worked with the Immigration service in Ghana and risen to the very top before retirement so coming into Nigeria (or leaving Ghana) with a cancelled passport was not expected from her. Alas the passport she left Ghana with was CANCELLED! she had to be deported.
Today's post is about people that have to suffer just because they don't pay attention to simple details or would i say information as contained in their passports.
The Woman:
Towards the close of my last day shift i was called by the immigration service to their office to sign up forms for a woman about to be deported back to Ghana! i was quite surprised as Ghana is a west African country like Nigeria, so i don't expect a Ghanaian to be deported from Nigeria.
As i approached the office, the Lady was not there, she was at a different corner making frantic efforts to get top government officials to wade into her situation as it was eminent that she would be deported. She was in Nigeria on the invitation of a high powered agency and was even on phone with top immigration officers in Abuja where the meeting was to be held.
Towards the close of my last day shift i was called by the immigration service to their office to sign up forms for a woman about to be deported back to Ghana! i was quite surprised as Ghana is a west African country like Nigeria, so i don't expect a Ghanaian to be deported from Nigeria.
As i approached the office, the Lady was not there, she was at a different corner making frantic efforts to get top government officials to wade into her situation as it was eminent that she would be deported. She was in Nigeria on the invitation of a high powered agency and was even on phone with top immigration officers in Abuja where the meeting was to be held.
The Error:
This Lady had apparently worked with the Immigration service in Ghana and risen to the very top before retirement so coming into Nigeria (or leaving Ghana) with a cancelled passport was not expected from her. Alas the passport she left Ghana with was CANCELLED! she had to be deported.
The Explanaton:
As i approached her, to enquire of her return ticket and how this happened. She claims that she had an ECOWAS passport at home but didn't bring it. She also told me that she had no return ticket on her and that the ticket to go back to Ghana was waiting for her in Abuja. This was not so as all our tickets are electronic and i could not find her name on the flights for the next week when she claimed she had a ticket for.
As i approached her, to enquire of her return ticket and how this happened. She claims that she had an ECOWAS passport at home but didn't bring it. She also told me that she had no return ticket on her and that the ticket to go back to Ghana was waiting for her in Abuja. This was not so as all our tickets are electronic and i could not find her name on the flights for the next week when she claimed she had a ticket for.
The Options:
The options were few and far between as a flight just left to ACCRA as we spoke and made calls. She was about to miss the next and final one if we did not make moves to get her on a flight to Accra and fast, she would have had to sleep over in the Airport , and the Airline would have to pay a fine of $2,000 to the immigration service (which i was still trying to avoid) for bringing her in with invalid documents.
The options were few and far between as a flight just left to ACCRA as we spoke and made calls. She was about to miss the next and final one if we did not make moves to get her on a flight to Accra and fast, she would have had to sleep over in the Airport , and the Airline would have to pay a fine of $2,000 to the immigration service (which i was still trying to avoid) for bringing her in with invalid documents.
A ticket was priced for her 1 way to Accra and was told to pay. She claimed she had no money and that her ticket was in Abuja, when it started to dawn on her that she may sleep on a table in the Airport (considering her status) she opted to pay via credit card.
Eventually, she did pay for the ticket and was returned back to Ghana. She had therefore paid for 2 tickets ACCRA-Lagos-Abuja , and Lagos-Accra without stepping out of the Airport! Both tickets would have cost her upwards of $500. All she had to do was take time out at home or on her way to the Airport to go through her documents. Instead of flying 55mins to Lagos, staying in the Airport for 2hrs and flying out for another 55mins without leaving the Airport.
The moral of the story is......read- @lereboy
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