Polls: UK to shut visa application centres in Lagos over safety concerns

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Polls: UK to shut visa application centres in Lagos over safety concerns

The United Kingdom (UK) on Friday said its visa application centres in Lagos will be closed on March 20 over likely outbreak of post-election violence in the city.

Recall that the governorship and assembly elections are scheduled to hold on Saturday, March 18.

Top three contenders for the governorship seat include; incumbent 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).

In a statement on Friday, the UK said the affected centres are in Ikeja and Victoria Island, adding that customers would not be able to collect their passports on the said day.

“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.”

The UK said priority visa (PV) services remain available while super priority visa (SPV) services will be suspended on Friday “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 reads.