Months after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to release the international passport of a former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, the NIS has confirmed its compliance.
The lawyer to the NIS, Jimoh Adamu, told the court presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo that Odili’s daughter, Njideka Nwosu-Iheme, a serving judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, collected the passport for her father on December 20 last year at the Immigration headquarters in Abuja.
Adamu, in a motion he filed, exhibited a letter of request by Odili and other evidence showing that he has received the passport.
Justice Ekwo however said the fresh motion was not yet before the court when the case came up on Monday.
It would be recalled that Justice Ekwo had in October 2021 ordered the NIS to immediately release Odili’s international passport, declaring that the seizure by the service was illegal, unconstitutional, and an infringement of his fundamental rights.
The judge further ordered the service, to tender an apology to the former governor, and restrained the NIS from harassing and intimidating him from leaving the country or moving freely within the country.
