By Yemi Oyeyemi, Abuja.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed October 18, 2021 for judgment in a fundamental human rights suit by former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, seeking the return of his international passport, seized by the the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) last June.
The NIS on Friday at the Federal High court in Abuja insisted that the International passport of a former Rivers State governor, Sir Peter Odili was impounded by its operatives on the order of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC.
The agency begged the high court to dismiss the suit instituted by the former governor to compel the release of the passport to him.
Counsel to the NIS, Mr Jimoh Abdulkadir Adamu, while defending the action of his clients tendered a letter by EFCC instructing Immigration to seize the passport because Odili was on the watch list for some infractions.
Adamu also asked the court to reject the case because the name on the seized international passport did not correspond with the name of Peter Odili that instituted the court case.
Odili’s passport was on June 20, 2021 seized from him by operatives of the Immigration Service upon his arrival from a trip to the United Kingdom and has since been withheld.
Justice Inyang Ekwo has however fixed October 18 for judgment in Odili’s suit challenging the seizure of his international passport by the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Justice Ekwo fixed the date after taking arguments from Chief Ifedayo Adedipe SAN who stood for the former governor and Mr Jimoh Adamu who represented the NIS and its Comptroller-General (CG).
Adedipe while adopting his processes prayed the court to order the respondents to return the international passport of his client on the grounds that it was unlawfully seized from him.
The senior lawyer submitted that the right of Odili to own property was violated by the NIS because there was no order of court before the passport seizure was effected.
He prayed the court to discountenance the claim of the respondents that Odili was on the watchlist of the EFCC adding that up till now, his client had not been interrogated or criminal charge instituted against him for any offence.
“The applicant is a senior citizen of Nigeria and is 73 years old, a former deputy governor, a two- time governor of Rivers State and an accomplished medical doctor as well as a holder of national honors.
“EFCC is not a body that can instruct the Immigration Service to seize a passport in place of a court order.”
Adedipe also asked the court to reject a letter from the EFCC exhibited by NIS to justify he seizure of the passport adding that the purported letter can not take the place of an order of a law court.
Odili had dragged tha Nigeria Immigration Service and its Comptroller General before the federal high court in Abuja challenging the sezure of his passport at the Nnamd Azikwe International airport in Abuja for undisclosed reasons.
In the fundermental rights enforcement suit, he had claimed that the international passport with numbers B50031305 was seized from him on June 20, 2021 by operatives of the Immigration Service and has since been witheld.
In an 8-paragraph affidavit he personally deposed to, the former governor claimed that the passport was seized from him upon his return to Nigeria from the United Kingdom where he had gone for his medicals.
Odili averred that on his arrival, his traveling documents were checked and given back to him and that while waiting for his luggage, an official of Immigration demanded for the passport on claim of routing check which he complied with but that the document has since been witheld.
Odili prayed the court to compel the two respondents to release the passport to him and for an order of perpetual injunction against the respondents from further harrassing, embarrassing, intimidating or interfering with his fundermental right to freedom of movement.
The former governor also demanded a written apology for the embarrassment caused him by the Immigration.
