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Nigeria Immigration releases #EndSARS lawyer, Modupe Odele’s passport
BY NICHOLAS ABE
Nigeria Immigration Service has returned the seized passport of an #EndSARS promoter, Modupe Odele, nine days after it was seized at the Murtala Muhammed International while she was on her way to the Maldives.
Odele made this known in a tweet after retrieving the passport today, Monday.
Immigration had asked Odele to come pick-up her passport on Friday at 4pm but could not meet up.
While giving an update, Odele tweeted, “Passport now picked up. No issues. I’m told I can travel at any time. Thank you so much everyone for the help and concern.”
She had earlier tweeted: “1st of November, I was stopped and my passport taken some minutes to boarding this (tweet shows ticket) flight. No reason was given, other than ‘you are under investigation’ today is 5th of November, I still do not have my passport back neither have I been told what the investigation is about.
“Holding on to my passport without giving me any reason for it is a breach of my constitutional right. I’ve not been informed of any investigation against me, I’m not running. I am here. Investigate. Ask me questions but do not continue to hold on to my passport with NO reasons.”
READ: N150 bn stolen Abia money: EFCC seizes ex-gov T. A. Orji, Speaker Chinedum’s passports
Odele, who provided legal assistance to peaceful protesters who were unjustly arrested by the authorities, was stopped at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, two Sundays ago, on her way to the Maldives through Dubai.
The NIS whose supervising ministry, Ministry of Interior, had claimed it had not issued a ‘No-fly-list’, said the passport of Modupe Odele was seized as part of a routine border assignment.
Spokesman for the service, Mr. Sunday James, said, “When there is a directive from any agency of government not specific, we have to enforce either entry or restriction of entry by anybody who has been directed not to be allowed exit or entry and as a matter of fact, we cannot as a border management agency, allow anybody who has been restricted from leaving the country to go out and we cannot allow anybody who has been restricted from entry to enter.
“So, it is a routine assignment and it has nothing to do with End SARS. We are the lead agency for the security management of the border. It has to do with the restriction order which we are duty-bound to enforce.”