Modupe “Moe” Odele, a legal practitioner and member of the Feminist Coalition- a group supporting the EndSARs campaign narrates to the general public few days ago how her international passport was seized by immigration officers at the airport when she was traveling out of the country for her birthday. This led to an uproar on social media as Nigerians accused the government of intimidating its citizens.

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in response to this said that Moe’s passport was seized as part of a routine border assignment. The spokesman of NIS added that the passport’s hold has nothing to do with her involvement with the EndSars campaign but has to do with an enforcing restriction order.

He 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.”