A Nigerian man deported from the United States to Ghana has complained of being left stranded in Togo after Ghanaian authorities secretly moved him and five others across the border.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that the man, who requested anonymity, said they were told they were being relocated from a military camp to improved accommodation but were instead “abandoned” in Togo.
“Life there was really hard, so we asked for a better place, better medication, better healthcare and better water,” he told the BBC while describing how the conditions at the Ghanaian military camp were harsh and “deplorable.”
He said that when officials returned days later, supposedly to transfer them to a hotel, they were instead taken to Togo.
“When we arrived, we asked what we were doing at the border, and they told us they wanted us to sign some paperwork so they could take us to a hotel, but we didn’t sign anything,” he said.
The deportee alleged that the group was escorted into Togo through an unofficial route, after local police were bribed, without informing Togolese authorities.
“They did not take us through the main border; they took us through the back door. They paid the police there and dropped us in Togo,” he said.
He explained that four deportees are Nigerians and one Liberian who have now taken refuge in a hotel in Lomé, the Togolese capital near the border.
“I have a house in the US where my kids live. How am I supposed to pay the mortgage? I don’t know how they’ll manage while I’m gone. My kids can’t see me, and it’s just so stressful,” he lamented while highlighting the personal impact of his removal.
Explaining that he belongs to the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement- an activist group pushing for a separatist state in south-west Nigeria, and fears that returning home could expose him to arrest or torture, he also claimed to have court-ordered protection in the US that should have blocked his deportation, though the American authorities have not clarified why it was ignored.
Notably, the deportee was among a larger group of West Africans, including citizens of Togo, Liberia, and The Gambia, who were deported from US detention centres to Ghana in September. Already, the group’s lawyers have filed lawsuits against both the US and Ghana, accusing them of violating their rights.
Commenting on the deportation, Ghanaian officials, including Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the country took in the deportees out of “pan-African solidarity,” stressing that no financial deal was attached.
The ICIR reports that the deportation agreement, announced by President John Mahama, has drawn criticism from opposition MPs, who are demanding its suspension until parliament ratifies it, even as the government prepares to receive another 40 deportees.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.