A Nigerian man has alleged that he paid $1,500 to obtain a Gambian passport and was instructed to change his name to “Omar Bashir” before travelling to Europe.

Speaking about his experience in an interview, the man said he was desperate to leave The Gambia at the time and was introduced to an immigration officer who, according to him, explained what was required to obtain the Gambian passport.

“They asked me to pay $1,500 for the passport. That’s easy. I could afford that. I gave them the money. And then the next thing they asked me to do was to change my name,” he alleged.

He claimed that the name “Omar Bashir” was given to him, although he initially refused to accept it.

“I picked up that name because I was desperate to travel. I collected the passport, Omar Bashir, paid the money. They gave me that,” he said.

The man said he subsequently spent time in The Gambia training himself to respond to the new name so he would not raise suspicion while travelling.

“I was going around in Gambia, training to answer the name Omar Bashir,” he said.

He described the experience as deeply disturbing, saying the name remained associated with the ordeal even after he left the country.

According to his account, he travelled using the Gambian passport, transiting through the United Kingdom before continuing to Sweden.

He said his journey became particularly frightening when he arrived at UK immigration, where an officer questioned his identity and allegedly told him that he was an Igbo man rather than a Gambian.

“I said, no, you are an Igbo man,” he recalled the immigration officer telling him.

The man said he was subsequently taken into a small room while his passport was examined.

He further alleged that UK authorities contacted The Gambia to verify the passport and that Gambian authorities confirmed the document was genuine. However, this account has not been independently verified.

He said he was eventually allowed to continue his journey but was not permitted to enter the UK because he could not provide an address there.

He then travelled on to Sweden, where he said the reality of his situation hit him after arriving.

“I landed in Sweden. Came out of the airport. I ran back again into the building. It was freezing cold. I asked myself, what brought me here?” he recounted.

Gambiana has contacted the Immigration Department for comment on the allegations.

By Adama Makasuba