by Kolapo Olapoju and Adedayo Ademuwagun

Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili has arrived Heathrow airport, London, after being briefly detained and delayed, Monday morning, 21 July, at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport by officials of the State Security Service who seized her passport and subsequently released it.

Ezekwesili, who has been at the forefront of the campaign to bring back the Boko-Haram abducted Chibok girls was made to sweat before boarding her flight to London where she is expected to appear on BBC’s Hard talk’ to discourse issues about the country.

Immediately the incident occurred, she took to micro-blogging platform, Twitter to share the news of her plight with Nigerians who quickly made it a viral topic on the web.

Not long after, her passport was returned to her by the SSS operatives and she managed to make a 7:55 am boarding of her British airways flight which was scheduled to take off by 8:00 am.

She would also be upgraded to first class by the British airways when she eventually got on the plane and she has since arrived in London.

However a lawyer told YNaija that though unnecessary, the SSS was well within its powers. “They’re actually responsible for security and intelligence gathering. So, when you’re travelling, they can accost you if they have any security concerns,” Kolade Adewuyi said. “In that case, it is lawful. I, too, have been stopped like that a couple of times during travels.”

“Not true,” said another lawyer, who pleaded anonymity as she does work with the government. “There has to be an over-arching reason to have delayed her flight and subjected her to what she interprets as harassment. We all know this is about #BringBackOurGirls. The government is frustrated that it has been unable to shut Oby down. This can be interpreted by progressive courts as unnecessary harassment and an offense to her right to free movement.”

Ezekwesili is one of the leaders of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. On July 23 it will be 100 days since the abduction of more than 200 female students in Chibok.

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