LAGOS JULY 6TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former Delta State Gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has appealed to foreign embassies in Nigeria to  locate visa offices  in other  parts of Nigeria  instead of location  in Lagos and Abuja alone.  

Onuesoke who made the appeal in a telephone chat with our correspondence from Germany where he is attending the climate change conference lamented that Nigerians who are located in the Northern and Niger Delta regions of Nigeria who want to do business with the foreign embassies are facing a lot of difficulties in accessing  the embassies  because of distance location.

He said in course of trying to access the foreign embassies that are located at  Abuja and Lagos they risk their lives in travelling long distance and incurred a lot of expenses in term of hotel bills and  other exigencies in the course of having any transaction to do with the foreign embassies.

“For instance, Nigerians residing in Niger Delta Region, Northern states and other parts of the country that are not close to Lagos or Abuja where majority of the foreign embassies are located find it difficult and  inconvenience to  do  transaction  in term of obtaining visa or transact  other business because of the distance. They do not only risk their lives in travelling distance along the dangerous roads or waterways, they spend a lot of fund in transportation and hotel bills should they leave their distance abode to either Abuja or Lagos to the embassies.

“Nigeria is a big country with large expand of both land and riverine areas.  For instance, someone who resides in Borno, Zamfara  or Sokoto in the North  and Ijaw communities in Niger  Delta Riverine area will have to travel  a long distance either through land or river to Lagos or Abuja before he  or she could do any business with the foreign embassies. Besides, he or she will have to spend huge amount in hotel bills and other exigencies,” he disclosed.

The PDP Chieftain argued that such inconveniences and expenses could be avoided if the foreign embassies   establish offices  as  consulates in towns like  in Gombe, Borno, Port Harcourt, Asaba, Warri and Calabar  among others  to make it easy for those residing in those  areas to obtain visa or  do business with them.

He stated that although it will cost the foreign countries more financially to expand, he however advised  that big and wealthy  countries like Germany, United Kingdom, United states , France  and Japan who have large business stake in Nigeria will benefit more  should they  spread their offices in Nigeria for convenience sake.