The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has removed the name of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the controversial “No-Fly” list, following public outrage over an incident in which her international passport was allegedly seized on the orders of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Sources within the airport immigration station and the NIS headquarters confirmed the development to Sahara Reporters on Wednesday.
According to a senior immigration officer, the senator’s name was initially placed on the list “because she always speaks badly about the Senate whenever she travels,” allegedly at the instruction of the Senate President.
“It has now been confirmed that she has been cleared from the list after that video, which immigration complained portrayed their agency in a bad light,” the source said.
The controversy began earlier this month when Senator Natasha shared a video in which she confronted immigration officers who allegedly confiscated her passport at the airport without any court order.
In the viral clip, the visibly frustrated lawmaker described the act as an unlawful restriction of movement and a violation of her constitutional 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.
She stated that the situation was not new, recalling a previous episode where she was stopped from travelling under similar circumstances.
“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,” she added.
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