Immigration Buckles, Returns Senator Natasha’s Passport After Airport Altercation
In a dramatic scene at the airport on Tuesday morning, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central, defied attempts by Nigeria Immigration Service personnel to ceaze her international passport.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of conniving with the immigration authorities to stop her from travelling out of the country.
In a Facebook Live video streamed directly from the airport terminal, Akpoti-Uduaghan appeared visibly upset as she confronted immigration officers who, according to her, had withheld her passport for over 20 minutes.
“Is Godswill Akpabio so important? Why is he overruling boundaries?” she asked furiously. “Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, has instructed the Comptroller-General of Customs to deny me exit, to withhold my passport. This is wrong,” she alleged.
According to her, it is not the first time this has happened.
“The last time this happened, he said every time I travel out, I smear the country’s image by granting interviews. It took someone influential to call them to release my passport.”
“Tell them to release my passport,” she called out Akpabio in the live video from the airport, where some immigration officers were heard apologising. One said, “We are sorry ma,” to which Akpoti-Uduaghan retorted, “Do not tell me sorry, let me have my passport.”
Natasha argued that there was no legal justification for the seizure. “There was no order. Yes, I know I have two Federal Government cases against me—of which the President of Nigeria instructed the Attorney-General of the Federation to withdraw.”
“The President actually spoke to Godswill Akpabio to terminate all the cases against me because he admitted they were politically witch-hunting me. So, there is no reason why my passport should be withheld at the international airport. You have no right to that, madam.”
She demanded for explanation from the immigration officers why they wanted to withhold her passport illegally.
“There is no court order. I have not missed any of my court appearances. I have attended all my court sessions. I am not a flight risk. I am not a risk to my country. So why are you treating me like a criminal? Can I have my passport, please?”
Moments later, an immigration officer eventually returned the passport to her after over 20 minutes of dilly dallying.
An angry Natasha said “sometimes I think you just have to be a rebel to get things right. Then, you keep asking Nigerians to be good citizens. If I had not gone public, would you have given me back my passport?”
There has been no official reaction from the immigration authorities or the Senate President on the incident.
