20 intending passengers denied boarding at MMIA

No fewer than 20 Nigerians have been stopped from travelling out of the country through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos in the last one week by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Airport Command.

A source close to the Command in Lagos confided most of those stopped could not give tangible reasons for wanting to travel out and details of their travels.

Most of them also could not provide documents to support their claims while it was observed that some of them used agents to perfect their papers to travel out by all means.

Also the NIS, MMIA Command on Wednesday, reunited a mentally-challenged female Nigerian, Motunde Oluwatobi Victoria with her family members at the airport.

It was gathered Motunde, who had been in Saudi Arabia since 2018 and engaged as a house maid, returned aboard Egypt Air at 1:30pm on Tuesday and was incoherent, prompting the Command to search for her family members.

Once immigration officials discovered Motunde was not mentally-balanced, they searched for her family contact through the social media and located her immediate older sister, Titilope Deborah Babatunde.

Her elder sister lauded officials of immigration at the airport for reuniting her with her sister.

She confirmed Motunrayo, who had been in Saudi Arabia since 2018, was engaged as a house maid, stressing she got wind of her health challenge about two weeks ago.

“I am very grateful to the immigration service, MMIA Command for reuniting me with my sister. Initially when I received the call, I concluded that it was a scammer at work.

“What immigration has done has further reinvigorated my belief about Nigeria. It shows that to some extent, we are still secure in Nigeria.

“If not for the immigration, I will not know that my sister has been brought back to Nigeria. We will still think she was in Saudi Arabia,” she said.

(The Nation)