The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has officially removed Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s name from the contentious ‘No-Fly’ list. This action follows significant public outcry after her international passport was reportedly confiscated on the directive of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Reliable sources from both the airport immigration station and NIS headquarters confirmed this update to Sahara Reporters on Wednesday.
A senior immigration officer disclosed that the senator’s name was initially added to the list due to her alleged negative remarks about the Senate during overseas travels, supposedly under the instructions 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 stated.
The issue arose earlier this month when Senator Natasha released a video confronting immigration officers who allegedly seized her passport at the airport without any legal order.
In the widely circulated video, the frustrated senator claimed the act was an illegal restriction of movement and a breach 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 remarked.
She recounted that this was not an isolated incident, referring to a prior event where she was similarly barred from travelling.
“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 further explained.
