Senator Natasha Akpoti
Officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at Abuja airport have reportedly seized the international passport of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central in the National Assembly.
In a live Facebook broadcast on Tuesday morning, the senator revealed that the seizure was allegedly carried out on the orders of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
According to Akpoti-Uduaghan, she had planned a brief vacation to unwind after celebrating her second anniversary in office but was prevented from travelling when immigration officers at an airport withheld her travel document.
> “Having completed the celebration of my second year, I decided to take a week off, and my passport is being withheld again. The same thing happened before,” she lamented.
The lawmaker maintained that she had committed no offence and that there was no legal order justifying the confiscation of her passport.
> “I have committed no offence, and there is no order from any court to seize my passport or deny me from travelling,” she added.
Akpoti-Uduaghan further recalled a previous incident in which, according to her, an airport official disclosed that the directive to retain her passport had come directly from the Senate President.
> “The last time it happened, the officer in charge told us that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, instructed them to withhold my passport and prevent me from travelling,” she alleged.
As of the time of filing this report, neither the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) nor the Office of the Senate President had issued an official statement in response to the senator’s claims.
