Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s international passport was briefly seized by Nigerian immigration officers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on Wednesday morning, July 24, causing a momentary travel scare before she eventually boarded a British Airways flight to London.
According to eyewitnesses at the airport, the senator, representing Kogi Central, arrived at the international terminal with her husband, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, and was stopped by immigration officials as she was about to board a London-bound flight. The immigration officers were said to have flagged her as a “national security risk.”
Eyewitnesses say the Senator remained calm and composed throughout the ordeal, insisting that the officers had no legal authority to seize her passport.
“The court never authorised this. You have no right to hold my passport,” she was overheard telling the officers, while urging them to allow her to proceed.
Her husband was spotted making a series of urgent phone calls as the delay dragged on. Minutes later, the senator’s passport was returned without any formal explanation, allowing her to swiftly proceed through immigration and board her flight just in time
