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The Nigerian Immigration Service has been accused by Modupe Odele, a member of the Feminist Coalition, of stopping her from travelling out of the country, TheCable reports.
Odele, who is a lawyer, was actively involved in the #EndSARS campaign. She offered legal aid to persons who were arrested during the protests.
The Feminist Coalition of which Modupe Odele is part of is the promoter of the #EndSARS protest and it raised about N147 million for the cause.
Narrating the incident of her being stopped at the airport In a newsletter on Monday, Odele said it happened while on her way to the Maldives to celebrate her birthday.
She said the officer who accosted her said the action was ordered “from above”, and that she saw a “wanted poster” of herself on the officer’s computer.
The lawyer said she was detained and her passport seized.
“For my birthday, I had planned a trip to the Maldives. It was really for a break as the events of the last three weeks have exhausted my mind and body in a way I have never been exhausted in my life,” she said.
“I went to the airport, passed through immigration, and while I was putting my bags through the body and baggage scanner, the immigration officer who had previously cleared me, called me back. He told me he had orders from above to detain me.
“Okay, at this point I’m like excuse me, my flight is in an hour. On what grounds are you detaining me?” He didn’t respond. Instead, he goes to his computer where he typed in my name, and something that looked like a ‘wanted poster’ popped up on the portal.
“He blocked my view so I couldn’t see most of it but I saw some of it. And it read something like – ‘This person is under investigation by XYZ Intelligence Agency. If seen, they should be apprehended on sight.
“They held me for a little over an hour, seized my passport and I missed my flight. My passport is still seized up until this very moment and I have still not been made aware of what I am under investigation for.”
Odele said she is safe in a Twitter post on Tuesday and that she has been invited back with her lawyers.
“Hello everyone. Thank you so much. I’m fine and I’m safe. We haven’t confirmed yet why I was stopped on Sunday or by whom. But I’ve been invited back in with my lawyers today. I’ll update when I have more information but please don’t spread false news. That is dangerous,”she tweeted.
Efforts by TheCable to reach spokespersons of the NIS and the Department of State Services (DSS) proved abortive as calls were not responded to, and a text sent to Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesman, was not replied to.
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