Over 370 Nigerians Asked To Leave U.S.

July 19, 2020

President Donald Trump

More than 370 Nigerians were ordered to leave the United States this year, after being found guilty of breaking immigration laws and other crimes, data from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows.

Data obtained from the ICE and compiled in a June report by a global tracking website on government policy, TRAC, says 376 Nigerians, who mainly resided in Texas, New Jersey, California, New York and others, were served court orders to leave the U.S. between January and June, having been convicted of immigration and criminal charges.

TRAC is a U.S.-based tracking website that keeps databases of immigration, FBI cases and firearms data for public access.

The data referenced in this story was obtained by TRAC and sourced directly from the ICE through FOI requests.

This comes even as the scramble to flatten the spread of COVID-19 continues with the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policy on immigrants.

Trend

About 3,019 Nigerians were deported from the U.S for criminal convictions in 15 years, starting from ICE’s establishment in 2003 and ending in 2018, a PREMIUM TIMES analysis revealed.

But within the first half of this year, 335 Nigerians violated immigration laws including unlawful entry into the country, overstayed visas, fake documents and many others.

About 41 other Nigerians have criminal records of aggravated felonies such as fraud, drug crimes, sex and firearms offences.

Over time, ‘criminal aliens’ often top the list of priorities when it comes to deportation from the U.S.

This was laid bare more during the Trump administration as the American president vowed to “chase people with criminal records away from our country.”

Court proceedings

Once a foreign national is arrested for an offence by the Department of Homeland Security, they are tried before an immigration judge, which is often a lengthy legal process. The individual is most often flagged for deportation. Therefore, a deportation case is filed.

Deportation proceedings are conducted to determine whether the individual charged with violating immigration laws should be removed from the U.S. By removal, it means deportation.

During the proceedings, the individual could appeal the case and the term could be lessened to a voluntary departure but this does not provide for alternate erasure of criminal records.

The individual could be allowed to remain in the country if the judge finds the charges against him or her are not sustained or the government requests that the charges be dropped, as well as where the judge finds the other provisions in the immigration law entitles the individual “relief” from removal.

Between January and June this year, 2,700 deportation cases involving Nigerians were filed with immigration and criminal charges; the outcome of the court proceedings showed that 376 Nigerians were ordered deported.

Nigeria fell behind Cameroon which had the highest figure among the African countries – 647 – and was ahead of Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana which had 229 and 175 deportees respectively.

Concerns

But there are concerns by human rights activists that the U.S. may be brewing another crisis over the rights of the planned deportees who are reportedly kept in detention facilities across the country.

The 376 people are among the 901 Nigerians being held in detention facilities across the U.S., according to the 2019 report by ICE. No report of extradition of these deportees has been made yet.

However, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Human Rights Watch had urged the ICE to halt involuntary transfers of foreign nationals between facilities, and put in place policies at detention centres “that would allow safe social distancing and effective hygiene for as long as detainees remain in custody”.

“The U.S. government should not force deportees to travel so long as it puts them and their communities at heightened risk of COVID-19,” the Human Rights Watch said.

“Despite outbreaks of COVID-19 in U.S., immigration detention centres and government travel restrictions the world over, the U.S. has continued deportations with little regard for the consequences,” the US program director at Human Rights Watch, Nicole Austin-Hillery, said.

“With these reckless deportations, the Trump administration is contributing to the spread of COVID-19 and endangering public health globally.”

Repatriation, new threat?

Aside from the threat of importing COVID-19 into Nigeria, there are fears that the repatriation of the Nigerians could be detrimental to the West African country.

This is because Nigeria has no well-grounded structure for the reintegration of such people into the society, a Nigerian diplomatic analyst said.

“The truth is that the government, who is a major stakeholder in these deportation troubles, is unperturbed and unconcerned. Once deported and profiled, they are left to go on their own,” Gbemisola Lawal said.

“With the rate of unemployment expected to soar and a possible slip into recession after the pandemic, there is little hope for the returnees to start life afresh without having to take to criminal acts again because they may constantly feel dejected,” she adds.

Nigerian government reacts

When asked about the government’s plans as regards the deportation orders on the convicted Nigerians by the U.S. government, an official of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) said he had no comment since “it has not taken place yet.”

This is according to the commission’s spokesperson, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES.

“This 376 deportation proceedings outcome you claimed for this year alone, has not taken place. Until then, I can’t say more,” Mr Balogun said.

Attempts to get the reaction of the Nigerian Immigration Service were unsuccessful as calls and messages sent to the spokesperson, Sunday James, were not responded to.

Premium Times

Ondo 2020: PDP Chieftain Asks Court to Disqualify Deputy Governor

Kehinde Irinoye

July 19, 2020

Panel recommends rejection of doctored delegates list

James Sowole in Akure

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Mr. Konstante Olopele has asked an Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure to disqualify the Deputy Governor, Mr. Agboola Ajayi from participating in the party primary election scheduled to hold on July 22 over alleged age falsification and perjury.

Based on the report of a three-man probe panel headed by a former Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) has dropped the doctored delegates’ list that stoked undue apprehension in the ranks of the state chapter.

In Suit No: AK/45M/2020 filed by AMAC Solicitors on Friday, Olopele, who sued for and behalf of other concerned members, averred that the deputy governor had breached the code of conduct for public officers.

The plaintiff, therefore, asked the court to disqualify him from holding any public office for a period of ten years for alleged breach of Section 1, 5th Schedule, Part 1 of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers.

Olopele, also a legal practitioner, claimed that Ajayi breached Section 9 of the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

He, further, claimed that Ajayi had breached the extant laws that are regulating WAEC and Nigerian Law School attendance while he was serving as elected Local Government Chairman and member of the Federal House of Representatives respectively. The court will hear the suit on Tuesday.

On delegates list, a NWC member revealed that the party leadership rejected the doctored list due to the recommendations of a three-man probe panel headed by Ibrahim Dankwambo.

Up until last week, the party had been embroiled in internal crisis, over an allegation that 104 names were substituted in the delegates’ list, and replaced with proxies of the state’s deputy governor, who recently defected to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Though Ajayi denied involvement in the scam, the party, last week, dispatched the Dankwambo panel to Akure, the state’s capital, to solve the riddle.

The NWC member, who spoke on the doctored delegates list in confidence, said the Dankwambo panel, after having painstakingly read through the old delegates list and the newly presented one, spotted the 104 illegal names and knocked them off.

He said: “Following this, it returned to Abuja with the original list to be used for Wednesday’s primary, and also made far-reaching recommendations to the NWC.”

One of the recommendations, according to him, is that the old delegates’ list be adopted for Wednesday’s primary election.

The panel, he added, also appealed that Ajayi, the man in the eye of the storm in the list-doctoring saga, should be forgiven and assimilated fully into the party, despite that he is a newcomer.

Another party source, however, told THISDAY yesterday that the deputy governor, only submitted his secondary school certificate to the party, as his only qualification in the run-up to the PDP primary election.

ThisDay

COVID-19: Kwara Govt Quarantines 50 People Arrest At Night Club

Kehinde Irinoye

July 19, 2020

Kwara Senator, Eight Others Arrested Over Alleged Killing Of Two — a map of Kwara State.

No fewer than 50 people have been arrested by officials of the Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19 at a night club in Ilorin, the state capital.

The Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 in the state, Dr Femi Oladiji, disclosed this on Saturday at the state’s quarantine centre in Ilorin where the suspects were kept.

He explained that the operation was led by the state Deputy Governor and Chairman of the Technical Committee on COVID-19, Mr Kayode Alabi.

“Around 1:00am, we got information that some people were clubbing at Kwara Hotel.

“The deputy governor, in my accompany and some security officials, raided the club and we arrested so many boys and girls within the age range of 20 to 30,” Oladiji was quoted as saying in a statement by Rafiu Ajakaye, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor and spokesman for the technical committee.

He added, “Around 2:00am, we brought them to the Hajj camp (Quarantine Centre). We made them comfortable overnight, and early this morning, we took their samples for COVID-19.

“The arrest, which may lead to prosecution, is to send the signal that we cannot tolerate such conduct. Violations will henceforth attract a strong response from the government.”

The commissioner insisted that the ban on night clubbing remained in force to prevent the further spread of the virus in the state.

He stressed that the action of the clubbers violated the Kwara State Infectious Diseases Regulations, 2020, as well as the government’s subsisting ban on congregation beyond 20 people.

Oladiji, however, noted that this excluded places of worship where preventive measures have been put in place in agreement with religious leaders.

According to him, the government is considering other measures, including enforcement of the use of face mask in public to flatten the curve of transmission of the virus.

“The government will take appropriate actions against any officials of the hotel found to have authorised the violation of the existing ban to send the signal that such behaviour will not be tolerated,” the commissioner said.

By Abdulhakeem Garba

Four hardest punchers in boxing history: George Foreman’s List.

Kehinde Irinoye

July 19, 2020

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Former undisputed heavyweight boxing champion, George Foreman has named his four hardest punchers in boxing history.

Foreman, 71, who was known as the hardest puncher in his era did not list himself as one of the four, even when he is expected to do so.

Rather, he named Joe Louis as the hardest puncher in boxing history, followed by Liston, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson.

Foreman did not include Deontay Wilder, who is a knockout specialist.

“Joe Louis was the hardest puncher ever; Liston make the cut as well as Lennox Lewis. Mike Tyson. Nothing special about me,” he said on his twitter page.

Foreman, who had 81 professional fight, recorded 68 knockouts and lost five times.

No one could have claimed to be the hardest puncher in boxing history than Foreman, but he humbled himself and chose others.

Joe Louis, whom Foreman claimed to be the hardest puncher had 69 fights, scoring 52 knockout and suffering three loses.

Sonny Liston, who is second, according to Foreman’s ranking had 54 fights with 39 knockouts and four loses.

Lennox Lewis had 44 fights, with 32 knockouts, losing two and one draw, while Mike Tyson, known then as the ‘baddest man’ fought 58 times, with 44 knockouts.

Lewis, Tyson, Louis and Liston