Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan claims immigration officers seized her passport on Akpabio’s orders, calling it a violation of her rights.
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central, has alleged that Nigerian immigration officers seized her passport at an airport, preventing her from travelling abroad.
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The lawmaker, who recently marked her second anniversary in the Senate with a series of project inaugurations in Kogi State, went live on Instagram as she confronted officials over what she described as the unlawful confiscation of her travel document.
In a video obtained on Tuesday, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, instructed the officers to withhold her passport — an act she condemned as 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 during the live broadcast.
She alleged that this was not the first time such an incident had occurred, recalling a previous episode where she was stopped from travelling despite having no legal restrictions against her.
According to the senator, officers told her that Akpabio had directed them to act, accusing her of damaging the country’s image during interviews with international media.
“This same thing happened before when I was stopped from travelling even though I had committed no offence,” she said. “The last time, I was told the Senate President ordered that my passport be withheld because I ‘spoil the image of the country.’”
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan further alleged that the Controller General of Immigration had acted on Akpabio’s instruction and described the move as politically motivated. “This is wrong,” she said, adding that her passport was released only after the intervention of an unnamed influential figure.
She also claimed that President Bola Tinubu had directed the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, to withdraw all Federal Government cases against her.
The senator’s passport was later returned by immigration officers, though the brief detention reignited public debate over political freedoms and executive overreach.
The incident comes months after Akpoti-Uduaghan’s high-profile dispute with Godswill Akpabio over seat reallocation in the Senate — a confrontation that led to her six-month suspension in March 2025. She resumed her duties on 24 September after the suspension was lifted.
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Neither the Nigeria Immigration Service nor the office of the Senate President had issued an official response at the time of filing this report.
