A mother-of-three identified by the Nigeria Immigration Service as Mrs. Favour Igiebor, has dared her husband to speak out about the issues leading to her criminal destruction of the man’s passport on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Sunday.
She said she wanted to save her husband from the likely stress he would have suffered if she had done the passport tearing in their overseas base.
Without going into specifics, also attempted to state the reasons for shredding her husband’s Nigerian passport immediately the NIS cleared them for entry, and dared anyone to come and hold her responsible for her action.
The couple and their three kids had arrived Nigeria via an international flight and just immediately they were cleared, Mrs. Igiebor tore up her husband’s passport and told him, “This is Nigeria…”
However, speaking in an interview conducted by @JejojaFamily TV, Favour said the issues with her husband had been going on for years.
She said: “These issues have been going on for a very long time. I was just dancing to the tune till I arrive my motherland Nigeria which it just happened and I did what I did.
“I am not a mad woman who would just come and act like that. I have my reasons. I have gone through so many things. So many of you just commenting on the video, I am seeing so many comments, friends calling me, those that have never called me for ages are calling me, those that have heard from me 20 years ago are calling me. I am not like that.
“So many of you commenting, what if I had done this thing in Europe where we were coming from. Because I don’t want him to go through a lot of stress, that’s why I did it in Nigeria.
“So, I don’t care about what people are writing because if you don’t know what is happening, don’t just comment on what you don’t know, you have to know how to come into an issue. So many people at the airport that day saw me. Those who have thinking faculty were calm to ask me, wanting to know what happened.
“Do you think I will just come up and tear his passport like that? No. I don’t have to do that. I have gone through a lot of things. Family issues here and there every time. My husband cannot speak. It took me a long time because he is the one controlling my page for me. He is the one handling my page for me. He’s the one that has everything. So I had to go into to because my email was attached to it and his email too was attached to it. So I had to go and look for it to get this passport because I know even he himself did not know that I would go to this extent.
“I suffered with this my husband. I know how many years I suffered with him and just like that they just want my suffering to be chartered away (sic). Where is it done? I know men will never accept it. But those men who have sisters who have gone through this thing I’m going through now will understand but other men would not understand.
“So those of you who are saying she should be arrested, come and hold me responsible. I don’t understand, for what reason? I know the pains I’m passing through. Look at my eyes I cry everyday, after three kids. Then one man would now want to send me back to where I do not know. I want to reap what I have sowed with him, that’s all I have to say. If he knows he has the mind let him come out and say what’s happening.”
See the video:
Legal implications of Mrs. Favour Igiebor’s action
Meanwhile, Section 1 (1) Passport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act states that “Any person found guilty of an offence under paragraphs (b) to (i) of subsection (1) of this section shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.”
As contained in the Passport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act Chapter 343 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990, An Act to create, among other things, certain offences and their punishment, in respect of passports, explains:
1. (1) As from the commencement of this Act, it shall be an offence for any person-
(a) not being a citizen of Nigeria, to have, hold or be in possession of any Nigerian passport;
(b) to have, hold or be in unauthorised possession of more than one valid standard Nigerian passport;
(c) unlawfully to alter, tamper with or mutilate any passport or any pages thereof;
(d) knowingly to make or cause to be made any false statement for the purpose of procuring a passport whether for himself or for another person;
(e) to submit multiple application forms to one or more passport offices with the intention of obtaining multiple passports;
(f) to knowingly conceal, hide from or fail to disclose to the proper authority the loss of a passport;
(g) to act as a broker at or in the vicinity of any passport office or elsewhere, for the procurement of a passport;
(h) to forge or traffic in passports or to hold or be in possession of any forged passport knowing the same to be forged;
(i) to attempt, aid, abet, counsel, procure or connive or conspire with any other person to commit any of the offences set out in this subsection.
(2) Any person found guilty of an offence under paragraphs (b) to (i) of subsection (1) of this section shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.
