Court Orders Immigration To release Peter Odili’s Passport, apologise to him
(The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) seized Peter Odili’s passport on the claim that he was on the EFCC watchlist).
In a fundamental rights enforcement suit, the former Rivers State Governor had sued the NIS and its Comptroller-General before a Federal High court in Abuja challenging the seizure of his passport at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport.
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, ordered the Nigerian Immigration Services to immediately release the international passport of former Rivers State Governor, Dr Peter Odili, to him.
The court gave the order in a judgement following a fundamental rights enforcement suit dated August 25 and filed on the 26, instituted by Odili, challenging the seizure of his international travelling documents by Immigration officials.
The court also restricted the NIS from further harassing and restraining Odili from travelling in and out of the country.
The court also ordered the NIS to write a letter of apology to the former Governor.
The former Governor had claimed before the court that his international passport with numbers B50031305 was seized from him on June 20, 2021, by operatives of the Immigration Service and had since been withheld.
A medical doctor by profession, Odili served as Rivers state Deputy-Governor between 1992 and 1993, and later held office as substantive Governor between 1999 and 2007.
Dr. Odili is husband to Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili of the Supreme Court.
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