A popular #endsars promoter Modupe Odele has been allegedly prevented from travelling out of the country by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) on Sunday.
“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,” Odele tweeted.
Earlier, the corporate lawyer and community builder had narrated in a newsletter how an immigration officer accosted her at the airport.
She wrote, “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.
“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”.
Meanwhile, at the time of filing this report, the NIS was yet to release an official statement on why Odele was deprived from travelling out of the country.
But in a swift reaction to the story which has been trending online, the Nigerian government denied generating a ‘no-fly’ list containing names of youths and persons who participated in the recent #EndSARS protests.
The Federal Ministry of Interior disclosed this in a tweet on Tuesday.
According to channelstv.com, the Ministry of Interior said, “The Ministry of Interior did not, has not and will not generate any no-fly list. Ignore fake news, please!”
The Ministry also shared a short notice on its official handle stating that “No-fly list generation is not the responsibility of the Ministry or its associated agency.”
The reaction comes after one of the major promoters of the #EndSARS movement, Modupe Odele @Mochievous was stopped at the airport on Sunday while traveling to the Maldives for vacation.
Although the Nigeria Immigration Service is yet to explain the reason why Odele was stopped at the airport, some social media influencers have condemned the action and called for her release using the hashtag #FreeMoe.
