By Ameh Ochojila

Former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, has been placed on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) watch list over alleged economic and fiscal infractions.

Odili, a medical doctor, Deputy Governor between 1992 and 1993 and two-term governor of Rivers State between 1999 and 2007, sued the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and its Comptroller General before a Federal High court in Abuja challenging the seizure of his passport at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja for undisclosed reasons.

In the fundamental rights enforcement suit, he claimed the international passport seized from him on June 20, 2021, by operatives of the Immigration Service had since been withheld.

In an eight-paragraph affidavit he personally deposed to, the former governor claimed the passport was seized from him upon his return to Nigeria from the United Kingdom where he had gone for his medicals.

Odili revealed that on arrival, his traveling documents were checked and given back to him and that while waiting for his luggage, an Immigration officer demanded his passport on a claim of a routine check, which he complied with, but that the document was withheld.

Odili prayed Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed to compel the respondents to release the passport and order of perpetual injunction against the respondents from further harassing, embarrassing, intimidating, or interfering with his fundamental right to freedom of movement.