Immigration Officials Return Senator Natasha’s Seized Passport at Airport
The lawmaker went live on Instagram at the airport as she questioned immigration officials over the alleged confiscation of her passport.
In a video obtained on Tuesday, she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of giving the order for her passport to be seized.
She described the action as an unlawful restriction of her movement and a gross violation of her fundamental rights.
''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 video.
“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.”
According to the senator, it was only after the intervention of a certain influential person that her passport was released the last time such an incident occurred.
“Godswill Akpabio has instructed the Controller General of Customs to withhold my passport. This is wrong,” the lawmaker said.
Akpoti-Uduaghan’s passport was later released by the immigration officials.
The Kogi legislator was involved in a high-profile dispute with Akpabio in February over seat reallocation in the Senate, which escalated into her six-month suspension, effective March 6, 2025.