Nigerian authorities have invited a woman for questioning after a video appeared to show her tearing up a Nigerian passport at Lagos airport.
The woman, in the viral video on social media, was seen shouting at her husband.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) now says it has launched a formal investigation.
“The individual has been identified and invited for further investigation. If her actions are substantiated, her actions would have constituted a breach of … the immigration act,” the agency wrote in a statement on X.
Meanwhile, a woman who has identified herself as Favour Igiebor says she is the woman in the viral video.
In a video posted online on Monday, Igiebor says she tore the passport because she has been going through “family issues.”
“Look at my eyes. I do cry a lot. Many people commenting on social media don’t understand what I am going through,” she said in her video online.
“You have to ask what happened; don’t just look at the action alone. I have my reasons. I have gone through a lot of family issues. I cannot be suffering. I suffered with him.”
Local media reports that the woman, her husband, and their children landed at the Murtala Mohammed airport on Saturday, August 10.
The incident happened in front of dozens of other travellers at the airport.
“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 NIS statement added.
Under Section 49 of the NIS 2015 Act (as amended), a person found guilty of changing or altering a passport may face imprisonment or a fine.
According to the law, ''a person who alters or assists another in altering a travel document, or who produces or reproduces or assists in the production or reproduction of any travel document without lawful authority commits an offence under Section 59 of the Act.''
If found guilty, they can be sentenced to ''five years imprisonment or to a fine of one million naira or both.”
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