The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday denied the allegation of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, that its officers seized her passport at the airport.
Recall that the lawmaker representing Kogi Central had earlier gone live on Facebook, alleging that immigration officers at the airport withheld her passport without legal justification. In the video, a visibly upset Natasha said she was being unlawfully prevented from leaving the country despite having no court order restricting her movement.
Reacting to the allegation, the NIS spokesperson, Akinsola Akinlabi, described the incident as a “routine immigration procedure.”
He said “NIS didn’t seize the distinguished senator’s passport, but rather she went through routine immigration checks and was allowed to travel,” Akinlabi said, just as he also clarified that officers were only performing their statutory duties.
“The NIS officers needed to conduct their checks. They may take your passport to do so, but that doesn’t mean it was seized as alleged.
“She has since been allowed to travel. Perhaps while waiting for the checks to be completed, she assumed she was being stopped from travelling,” NIS image-maker said.
He added that the Kogi senator made her video during the routine process but did not post an update after being cleared to fly.
“She has travelled since then. The video was made while she was going through the checks, not after. The passport was never seized,” Akinlabi said.
When asked if Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan resisted handing over her passport for inspection, Akinlabi said he could not confirm that.
“I don’t know about that,” he replied. “But the officers conducting the checks are authorised to collect passports for verification and must return them once done, which they did.”
Recall that earlier, Natasha alleged that immigration officials at the airport prevented her from travelling abroad.
The lawmaker raised the alarm during a live broadcast on her Facebook page on Tuesday morning, accusing officials of withholding her passport without legal justification.
“Having completed my second-year celebration, I decided to take a week off. I’m at the airport, and my passport has been withheld again. Have I committed any offence? Why are you withholding my passport?” she said to the officials during the livestream.
“This is wrong. There was no order. Yes, I know I have two federal government cases against me, of which the president of Nigeria instructed the AGF to cancel the cases, to withdraw the cases.
