*Skit Or Emotion, Couple Apologise

THE Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has arrested a woman, Favour Igiebor, who tore her husband’s Nigerian passport on arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, from Italy on Saturday, August 10.

This came shortly after NIS launched an investigation into a viral video showing the traveller destroying a Nigerian Standard Passport, as the law prohibits the willful destruction of Nigerian travel documents.

       Recall that on Monday, August 12, NIS’ Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kenneth Udo (DCI), said the female traveller had been identified and invited for further investigation, adding: “If the allegations are substantiated, her actions would have constituted a breach of Section 10(b) of the Immigration Act 2015 (as amended), with corresponding penalties outlined under Section 10(h) of the same Act.

“The Nigeria Immigration Service remains steadfast in its commitment to upholding the provisions of the Immigration Act in the interest of national security, and to preserving the dignity and integrity of the nation’s legal instruments.”

The mother of three, said to be a content creator, had publicly torn her husband’s passport and in a video uploaded on social media on Monday, said she did it so her husband would not be unable to travel abroad, indicating she was ready to face the consequences.

“To Nigerian Immigration, I am very sorry, but to be sincere, I did it for my husband not to go back, because I have seen so many things, I’ve gone through pains, pains that cause me heart pains today.

“Pain that gives me a headache in the middle of my head. You don’t know what I’m passing through,” she had said.

But the husband has now come out to deny that his passport was torn, claiming the entire drama was a skit.

While apologising in another video on Wednesday, August 14, on behalf of the wife via a video posted on the couple’s Tiktok page, known as jejoja family tv (@jeollzcpaw7), and shared on the family’s Instagram page, asking Nigerians for forgiveness, he explained that what his wife tore was not his passport, but cardboard paper, in a skit depicting what they witnessed themselves.

“I am here with my kids to send a message of appeal to Nigerians and the whole world, that what my wife tore is not my passport. She never tore my passport; my passport is intact.

“We were doing a skit. It’s a skit. This is somebody’s story of what happened that we were passing to the world. We never knew it will go to the extent that blogs will now take it to another standard. The Immigration has seen my passport, that my passport is intact.

“We say sorry to the Nigeria Immigration Service. We cannot defy the laws of Nigeria. We are full bonafide Nigerians and we cannot go against the law by destroying the passport of Nigeria. Its not possible.

“I have my passport in full. The Immigration officers saw it. If we committed and offence by doing that skit, to the Immigration officers, to the Comptroller General of Immigration, we are sorry.

“We are sorry for this. It is a prank video and nothing more than that. It is a cardboard paper my wife tore, not passport.”

Recall that when questioned about her actions, the woman responded: “Is it your passport?” She later explained that she destroyed the passport because he had caused her nothing but pain throughout their marriage and would have torn the passport in Europe, but didn’t want to cause her husband further stress.