SOUTH AFRICA – Fresh from her triumph at the Miss Universe Nigeria contest, Chidimma Adetshina has found herself in trouble with South African authorities after that country’s Department of Home Affairs announced that it could be seizing her passport along with that of her mother.
Chidimma, forced to pull out of the Miss SA pageant due to controversy surrounding her identity, triumphed at the pageant held in Lagos over the weekend.
However, one political party in South Africa, ActionSA, demanded answers from Home Affairs asking how the newly crowned Miss Universe Nigeria and her mother travelled to Nigeria whilst being investigated in South Africa.
Duwayne Esau, the Home Affairs spokesperson, said they had issued Promotion of Administrative Justice Act letters to both Adetshina and her mother, as they sought to establish how they had left the country while their matter was still under investigation.
“This step is a step before the IDs and passports can be retrieved. The owners of these documents can use them until they have been withdrawn by the department,” he said.
ActionSA’s chief whip in parliament, Lerato Ngobeni, expressed concern after Adetshina’s mother was spotted during a television broadcast of the Miss Universe Nigeria event while her identity is questioned in South Africa.
“It is therefore alarming that the main subject of this ongoing investigation was seen in Nigeria this past weekend during a television broadcast of Miss Universe Nigeria,” Ngobeni said.