For years, dozens of Nigerians say they paid a travel agency for visas that never came, and lost passports that were never returned. This week, some of them finally stood face to face with the man they blame for it.
What happened?
A video circulating online shows the moment Ifeanyi Onukwubiri, chief executive of TMT Travels and Tours, was brought out to meet a group of people who say he defrauded them. In the video, some of the alleged victims say they had not laid eyes on him in over two years, despite repeatedly trying to reach him about the money and documents they say he never returned. One woman, speaking as the wife of a man among the alleged victims, said her husband died as a result of what the family went through over the TMT ordeal. Another woman said she had travelled all the way from Libya for her visa to be processed, only to say she was defrauded alongside her family.
How did we get here?
Onukwubiri’s troubles with the law date back to at least November 2025, when police in Imo State opened an investigation into visa fraud allegations against TMT Travels and Tours, after nine Nigerian passports were recovered from the agency and Onukwubiri was invited for questioning. At the time, the company publicly dismissed the allegations as “fake news.” By December 2025, he had been arraigned in a Magistrate Court in Owerri and granted bail, with the case adjourned to the following January.
The allegations did not stop there. In February 2026, more than 19 people were filmed protesting with a banner accusing Onukwubiri of defrauding them of over ₦500 million through fake visa applications and fabricated COVID-19 test results, and of holding on to roughly 300 Nigerian and international passports since as far back as 2022. Despite the scale of the claims, Onukwubiri continued operating and even attempted to associate himself with a professional tourism body, prompting the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria to publicly deny any link to him in July 2026. Then, in late August 2026, social media activist VeryDarkMan announced that police had rearrested Onukwubiri in Imo State and moved him to Abuja, this time over allegations that he had defrauded Nigerians of more than ₦200 million, a figure VDM said was based on receipts he had gathered from victims.
TMT is not an isolated case
Onukwubiri’s case sits inside a much wider pattern of travel and visa fraud in Nigeria. In June 2026, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the chief executive of Goodben Global Travels and Tour Limited and an accomplice in Enugu, accusing them of collecting ₦68 million from at least 24 victims under the pretence of processing work visas, with one petitioner alone said to have paid over ₦57 million for visas for 20 clients that never materialised. In a separate case the same year, Lagos police arrested four staff of an education consultancy in Ago Okota accused of defrauding more than 100 victims of ₦500 million with false promises of Canadian visas. Nigerian travel-fraud watchers say the pattern is consistent across these cases: agents promise a “guaranteed” visa, charge large upfront fees, and either disappear with the money or hand over forged documents once payment clears.
Why do scams like this keep working?
Visa and travel scams thrive in Nigeria because of the sheer desperation many people feel to travel abroad for work, study, or a better life, combined with how confusing and opaque the real visa process can seem to an ordinary applicant. Agents who claim to have “connections” or shortcuts are able to build trust over months or years, which is part of why victims like the ones in this case say they waited so long, and paid so much, before accepting they had been misled.
Causes and effects
On an individual level, the toll described in the video is severe: lost life savings, seized passports and travel documents, and in the case of the widow who spoke out, the alleged loss of a husband’s life over the ordeal. On a national level, cases like this damage Nigeria’s reputation in the travel and immigration space, feed the broader problem of visa and travel fraud that Nigerians already battle a global stereotype around, and make legitimate travel agencies and visa consultants face more suspicion than they deserve.
What can be done?
Experts who track travel fraud recommend that anyone processing a visa insist on verifiable receipts, direct embassy or consulate confirmation where possible, and refuse to hand over original passports to any agent without a clear, written, time-bound agreement. Regulatory bodies like the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria could also play a bigger role in publishing a verified list of licensed travel agents, so prospective clients can check credentials before paying. Faster prosecution, rather than the pattern of arrest, bail, and re-arrest seen in this case, would also help deter agents who might otherwise treat fines and court appearances as a cost of doing business.
Where We Stand
What stands out most in this story is how long it took, and how many people, before this apparently reached a breaking point. Passports withheld since 2022. Protests since February. An investigation since November 2025. And still, by the accounts in this video, people were only now getting the chance to confront him face to face. We believe cases like this are a reminder that early complaints, even ones that eventually get dismissed as noise, deserve serious and swift investigation before the damage becomes as deep as it has for these families.
Published by Ejoh Caleb
