By Tabora Bojang
The Gambia Immigration Department said it has confirmed with the Criminal Investigation Unit in Canada that the five Gambian biometric passports intercepted during an inspection of an incoming parcel from a person believed to be Nigerian are “totally fake” documents.
According to international media reports, a 44-year-old Nigerian woman, Nnenna Oketa, was charged by the Canadian authorities in relation to the suspected fraudulent passports. Officials said the passports, five from The Gambia and two from South Africa, were discovered hidden inside a commercial cargo shipment arriving from Nigeria, with all documents reportedly carrying the same photograph but different identities.
Following the allegations, the GID instituted a panel comprising the head of intelligence Superintendent Sheriff Ceesay, head of public relations Inspector Siman Lowe and the head of document examination and fraud detection Superintendent Modou Lamin Joof who collaborated with the Canadian Border Service Agency and Canadian liaison officers in Morocco in establishing the facts surrounding the passports which were sent to The Gambia for review.
According to the investigation report, the first passport bears the name Dominic Mubarak, born in Banjul, issued on 14th July 2023 with an expiry date of 14th July 2028; the second passport bearing the name Kennedy Mboma, issued on 22nd March 2023 to expire on 24th August 2028; the third passport with the name Anderson Kalumba, issued on 9th February 2023 to expire on 9th February 2028; the fourth passport bearing the name Charles Mbesuma, 9th February, 2023 to 9th February, 2028; and the fifth passport bearing the name Benjamin Zulu, 19th January, 2023 to 19th January, 2028.
The GID reported that following a thorough examination of these documents, it found that all bearers’ names are not of Gambian traditional names even though their place of birth was stated to be Banjul.
In addition, the five passports also had fake Gambian and Senegalese airport stamps
The investigation further revealed that all the passport numbers used were not found in the Gambia biometric passport database and that the font sizes used for the personalisation of the questioned documents are thicker than those of the genuine Gambian biometric passports while their personalisation is not centred as of the genuine Gambian passport and the visa pages of the questioned passports all have pictures designed with random dots and micro texts that are not readable unlike the genuine Gambia biometric passport.
According to the GID, these findings made in collaboration with the Canadian Border Service Agency will serve as a catalyst for future cooperation and partnership, adding that plans are underway to organise operation meeting in Canada to discuss and understand the modus operandi of criminals and to devise mechanisms to mitigate the challenges the two countries are facing in border security and management.
