Officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday allegedly withheld the international passport of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, sparking outrage and raising questions about the possible misuse of power against a sitting lawmaker.
The senator, who represents Kogi Central, went live on Instagram from the airport, confronting immigration officials over the alleged seizure. In the video, which has since gone viral, Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed that the officers acted on the orders of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, whom she accused of repeatedly attempting to restrict 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,” she said in the live broadcast.
“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 last time this happened, the officer in charge told me that the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, instructed them 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.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that it took the intervention of a “highly placed individual” before her passport was released on the previous occasion.
She further claimed that President Bola Tinubu had directed Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to withdraw all pending Federal Government cases against her, questioning why security agencies were still targeting her.
“Godswill Akpabio has instructed the Controller General of Customs to withhold my passport. This is wrong,” she said.
The senator recently marked her second anniversary in the Senate with a series of constituency project inaugurations across Kogi Central, where she pledged to continue “serving the people fearlessly.”
