A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service to immediately release the international passport of a former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, which was seized by the NIS, to him.
In a ruling delivered on Monday by Justice Inyang Ekwo, he held that there was no legal basis for the action the NIS took against the former governor.
Odili approached the court to challenge the seizure of his international passport by the Immigration Service.
The Respondents in the matter were cited as the NIS and its Comptroller-General.
According to him, his passport with number B50031305 was seized from him after he landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on June 20 by NIS officials for unknown reasons. Since then, he said the Service refused to release the passport to him.
Odili said he landed at the airport from the United Kingdom on his return from a routine medical checkup.
He told the court that his traveling documents were checked and returned to him, after which he waited for his luggage to be cleared. As he waited, he said an Immigration official approached him and demanded the passport, with the impression that he wanted to conduct a routine check on the document.
While he complied by handing the document over to the official, the former governor said that the NIS officer went away with the passport and never returned it to him.
While declaring that he is a law-abiding senior citizen of the country and who did not commit any offence for which his travel document should be seized, the former governor asked the court to intervene in the matter.
He prayed the court to compel the two Respondents to release the passport to him, and also issue an order of perpetual injunction stopping them from further harassing, embarrassing, intimidating, or interfering with his fundamental right to freedom of movement.
Odili also prayed the court to compel the respondents to tender a written apology to him for the embarrassment they caused him.
