Drama as Senator Natasha alleges passport seizure on Akpabio’s orders

Drama as Senator Natasha alleges passport seizure on Akpabio’s orders

By Ade Ade

There was mild drama at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Tuesday as Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) briefly seized her passport on the orders of Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

In a live video streamed on her social media pages, the Kogi Central lawmaker was seen questioning Immigration officers after she was reportedly stopped from boarding a flight.

Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed the Comptroller General of Immigration acted on directives from the Senate President to confiscate her travel document without giving any reason.

Visibly displeased, she described the incident as an infringement on her fundamental right to freedom of movement.

During the live broadcast, a female immigration officer who had withheld the passport eventually returned it to the senator, allowing her to continue her journey.

The circumstances surrounding the brief seizure, however, remain unclear as neither the NIS nor the Office of the Senate President had issued an official statement at the time of filing this report.

It would be recalled that her passport was also temporarily confiscated under similar circumstances during her six-month suspension from the Senate earlier this year; an action she similarly attributed to Akpabio.