Natasha passport saga: Immigration officials at dispute
The Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has claimed that she was briefly stopped from travelling abroad on Tuesday after immigration officials seized her international passport at the airport.
In a Facebook live video obtained on Tuesday, the lawmaker was seen confronting immigration personnel over the action, which she described as an unlawful restriction of her movement and a violation of her fundamental rights.
She recalled a similar incident in the past where she was stopped from travelling abroad despite having no pending legal case or court order restricting her movement.
“Hello, fellow Nigerians. I’m Senator Natasha. Having completed my second year in office, I decided to take a week off. I’m at the airport here, and my passport has been withheld again.
“This same thing happened before when I was stopped from travelling even though I had committed no offence, and there was no court order restricting me.
“The officer in charge told me that Senate President Godswill Akpabio instructed to withhold my passport and prevent me from travelling because he claimed that each time I go abroad, I ‘spoil the image of the country’ by granting interviews to international media,” she lamented.
Akpoti-Uduaghan expressed frustration over what she described as repeated harassment and intimidation, urging authorities to intervene and end the “embarrassment.”
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She later confirmed that the immigration officers eventually returned her passport, allowing her to continue her journey.
But when contacted, the Service’s Public Relations Officer, Akinsola Akinlabi, dismissed the insinuations, describing the episode as a “routine check.”
“It is a routine check, and she has been allowed to travel. It was an exercise that didn’t even take long,” Akinlabi explained.
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When asked whether the directive emanated from the Senate President as alleged, the immigration spokesperson expressed surprise.
“Of course, not. What concerns immigration exercise with National Assembly matters?” he queried.
Efforts to get the reaction of Akpabio through his media aide, Eseme Eyiboh, were unsuccessful.
As of the time of filing this story, he neither picked up calls nor responded to the message sent for clarification.
