Police Report for a Lost Nigerian Passport — The Extract NIS Asks For

The Nigeria Immigration Service will not open a replacement application for a lost Nigerian passport until the applicant has the police extract. The NIS replacement-of-lost-passport guidance is explicit on this point: a police extract that specifically cites the loss of the passport is part of the documentary bundle without which the portal application is not accepted. Every other step in the replacement — the affidavit of loss at the High Court, the upload on immigration.gov.ng, the biometric enrolment, the fee payment, the Nigeria Temporary Passport for urgent travel where it applies — is downstream of the extract.

That is the framing this article works inside. The police-side question is not "should I file a report?" — NIS has already decided that for you, and the answer is yes. The question is what the extract must contain, who at the Division produces it, and what makes the extract usable at the NIS counter rather than rejected back to the station. Get those three points right and the replacement journey continues at the immigration end without a return trip.

The downstream-verifier in this article is the Nigeria Immigration Service. NIS is the actor reading the extract on the next step; the local Division is the actor producing it. The applicant is the citizen in between. Naming the NIS purpose in the letter of request to the DPO is what aligns the extract content with what NIS will accept.

The right counterpart is the Divisional Police Officer at the Division covering the geographical location where the passport was lost. Not the Area Command. Not the State Command. Not Force Headquarters. The DPO is the officer with the authority to issue an extract on the Division's letterhead with the NPF stamp.

Two practical points follow.

• Location, not residence, determines the Division. If you lost the passport at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the Division covering the airport is the right station even if you live in another state. If you lost it at a hotel in Abuja while resident in Lagos, the Division covering the Abuja hotel is the right station. If you cannot remember the exact location of loss but can name the last place you definitely had the booklet, that location's Division is the correct one — name it explicitly in the request letter.
• The DPO is named on the letter of request. The conventional opening is "The Divisional Police Officer, [Division name], Nigeria Police Force" — addressing the request to the office rather than to a personally-named officer. The DPO who reads it may be a different individual on the day from the one who signs the extract a few days later. The letterhead and the stamp are what matter at the NIS counter, not the personal name of the officer.

A request that goes to the wrong office (the Area Command, a State CID, the State Intelligence Bureau) is typically routed back to the appropriate Division rather than answered directly. Save the trip by starting at the right counter.

The extract is a written report on the Division's letterhead, bearing the NPF stamp and the DPO's signature (or the signature of a designated officer with the DPO's authority). Its content has to satisfy the NIS counter that will read it. Six items have to be present:

The DPO's signature, the NPF stamp, the date of issue, and the Division's letterhead are the format elements. An extract on plain paper without the stamp is not the NIS-acceptable document. An extract on a personal letterhead of an officer rather than the Division's letterhead is also not accepted. The format of the document is part of what makes it work at the next counter.

1. 1
   Identify the Division covering the location of lossUse the geographical location where the passport was lost, not where you live. If the loss was at an airport or hotel, the Division covering that venue is the right station. If you are unsure, ring the State Police Public Relations Office for the state in question and ask which Division covers the location.
2. 2
   Draft a written letter of request to the DPOAddress the letter to the Divisional Police Officer at the named Division. Set out the applicant's identity (full name, NIN, current address), the document lost (Nigerian passport — type and number where remembered), the date and location of loss, the circumstances, the steps already taken, and the downstream-verifier (NIS for the replacement). Sign and date.
3. 3
   Walk into the Division with the letter and documentsBring the letter, the NIN slip, a current government photo ID, and any document that supports the identity reference (a previous passport data-page photocopy, an immigration visa endorsement scan). Submit at the counter and ask to see the case officer.
4. 4
   Wait for the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) to take the caseThe case officer takes the report formally, asks any clarifying questions, and confirms the circumstances. The IPO drafts the extract on Division letterhead based on the letter of request and the conversation.
5. 5
   Return for the DPO's signature on the extractThe DPO reviews the draft extract, applies the NPF stamp, and signs. At low-volume rural Divisions this is same-day. At Lagos and Abuja metro Divisions it can be a working week or more. Ring ahead to confirm before the second trip.
6. 6
   Collect the extract and check the content before leaving the stationVerify each of the six content items is present — name, date, location, description, what you have done, NIS purpose — before walking out. A defective extract collected and signed is harder to correct than a defective draft at the desk. Ask for a fresh draft if any item is missing or wrong.
7. 7
   Take the extract to the NIS replacement workflowThe extract becomes the gating document on the NIS portal application at immigration.gov.ng. Upload alongside the High Court affidavit of loss, the NIN slip, the NPC birth certificate, the LG identification letter, and the passport-size photographs. See the [passport-side article](/passport/lost-nigerian-passport/) for the NIS-side flow.

There is no single public fee table for police extracts that applies cleanly across all Nigerian stations. The NPF General Orders convention discourages charging citizens for routine police services, but the specific Order text is not publicly verifiable. What is observable: the Force HQ does not publish a positive fee schedule for the extract, and individual stations do not publish their own. If applying through POSSAP, pay only the amount shown on the portal at the point of payment and keep the receipt — that figure is the binding one for portal-routed cases. If applying at a local Division, ask for any official charge to be written and receipted, and do not present cash facilitation payments as an official police fee.

The operating reality at many stations is that informal "facilitation" payments are reported. These payments are not an official fee — they are not on any NPF schedule, they produce no receipt that the applicant can attach to the NIS file, and they offer no recourse if the case stalls or the extract turns out to be defective. This article does not endorse paying them and does not quote any informal figure as legitimate. The honest path is to submit the written letter of request, ask for the extract through the formal route, and decline any informal request that the Division procedure does not require.

Where a station presents a printed administrative fee for photocopying, letter typing, or a stamp register, those are not fees for the extract itself; they are incidental administrative charges that may or may not be required. Ask in each case what the printed charge is for and whether the procedure requires the charge or whether it is optional.

If the Division refuses to issue the extract without an undocumented payment, the escalation paths are the Area Command above the Division, the State Police Command, the State Police Public Relations Office, and the Police Complaints Response Unit (the official NPF complaints channel). None of these are a quick fix at the point of need; they are the formal record route for systematic problems.

The NIS replacement requires both the police extract and a sworn affidavit of loss. The two documents are separate; obtaining one does not eliminate the need for the other. They run in parallel rather than sequentially.

The affidavit of loss is sworn at a Federal or State High Court (or a Customary Court of Appeal). The applicant attends the High Court registry, brings the NIN slip and a passport-size photograph, drafts the affidavit (or has the registry's stamp-and-paper template completed), swears before a commissioner for oaths, and pays the court's administrative fee for the stamped affidavit. The court issues the stamped, dated affidavit the same day in most registries.

Private notaries are not accepted in place of the High Court for this purpose. The Immigration Act 2015 framework reads the affidavit as a sworn declaration to the court rather than a private acknowledgment, which is why the court registration is mandatory. See how to swear an affidavit in Nigeria for the affidavit-side walkthrough.

Plan the affidavit on the same trip as the police extract where the locations make it feasible. Both documents are required at the NIS portal application step; missing either delays the replacement.

The NIS replacement workflow starts at immigration.gov.ng with the "Apply for Renewal/Re-issue Passport" option and the "Replacement of Lost Passport" selection. The portal collects the documentary bundle — the police extract, the High Court affidavit, the NIN slip, the NPC birth certificate, the LG identification letter, the passport-size photographs — and routes the application through the standard re-issue cycle.

Inside Nigeria the replacement booklet is priced like a standard passport — the 32-page 5-year fee runs at ₦100,000 per the NIS schedule effective 1 September 2025. There is no separate published penalty surcharge for in-Nigeria replacements; the police extract and the court affidavit serve as the formal record of the loss instead of a cash penalty. Diaspora missions handle penalty surcharges separately — see the passport-side article for the diaspora figures.

The published NIS re-issue Service Level Agreement is 21 days after biometric enrolment for in-Nigeria cases. Diaspora cases typically run 6 to 12 weeks. The clock starts at biometric enrolment, not at portal submission — bringing the extract to the enrolment day is when the replacement timeline begins.

The legal exposure is the reason this article does not encourage continued use of the lost booklet for any purpose once the extract is filed.

• Do not skip the police step on the grounds that NIS already trusts your identity. NIS does not open the replacement without the extract; it is the gating document, not an optional one.
• Do not pay a third party who offers to "retrieve" the lost booklet. There is no private recovery channel into NIS or the NPF. Money paid for retrieval is gone; the replacement still requires the extract and the affidavit.
• Do not declare the loss at one Division and then attempt to "find" the booklet through another channel. Once the loss is on the NPF record at the Division, the booklet is treated as cancelled. Producing it again later — even genuinely — creates a complicated documentary trail that is best avoided.
• Do not let the extract sit unused for months. Some NIS offices treat extracts older than three to six months as stale and ask for a fresh one. Move the NIS portal application within a few weeks of the extract date.