The United States has deported 34 Nigerians who arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos on Wednesday afternoon aboard a chartered Omni Air International aircraft with Registration Number: W342AX.
The deportees who claimed most of them were forced back to their motherland for minor infractions comprised of 32 males and two females who were sent back home on various offences bothering on homicide, fraud, distributing prohibited items, impersonation, among other offences.
The spokesman of the Lagos Airport Police Command, DSP Joseph Alabi, confirmed the development.
Alabi said,” At about 14.30 hours (2.30pm Nigerian time), we received 34 Nigerians who were brought back from the United States. They were made up of 32 males and two females. ”
He said the 25 of deportees were alleged to have committed criminal offences, one was allegedly involved in narcotics while the others were were alleged to have committed immigration-related offences.
Alabi said the deportees were received by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.
Also on ground to receive them were officials the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Alabi said the deportees were profiled by the relevant authorities and were allowed to depart to their various destinations.
The deportees claimed that the US government wrongly deported them and explained that most of them were forced back to Nigeria for minor offences, which should not have warranted deportation.
Though, most of the deportees were not willing to talk to the media, but Mr. Charles Nwankwo, who claimed to be a doctorate degree student in the US insisted that his deportation was wrongly carried out.
According to Nwankwo, the police arrested him in his house for committing no offence and he had been challenging his impending deportation in the court.
He lamented that the case was still ongoing in the court before he was forcefully removed from the detention camp on Tuesday in the US and airlifted to Nigeria.
Nwankwo therefore called on the Nigerian government to wade into illegal deportation of Nigerians especially since the Donald Trump’s administration.
He said, “I am a PhD student in the US and I was yet to complete my course before I was forcefully repatriated. I didn’t commit any offence in that country. I was surprised that I could be deported like a criminal like this.”
Also, Mr. Olusegun Olatunji said he had been residing in the US in the past 30 years.
According to Olatunji, he never committed any infraction in the US besides importing herbs from China, which the government claimed was counterfeit.
He lamented that he was fined $41,000 by the government, which he paid and wondered why he should still be repatriated to Nigeria after paying the sum.
He, however, said that some of the deportees overstayed in the US while others committed traffic offence, stressing that these were minor offences, which should not have warranted their deportation.
He said: “I would have spent 30 years in the US by 18 October. I have been in the US without any infraction. The only infraction I committed was that I ordered merchandise from China; herbs and they claimed the herbs were counterfeit. That was my so called offence and I was ordered to pay $41,000, which I paid to the government. They still confiscated the merchandise after paying the sum, but despite this, they still deported me. I have never committed any infraction in the US apart from importing these herbs from China.
“Most of us here have cases in different courts in the US, but the government did not allow us to see the resolution of the cases. They just took us by force and deported us from the US. This is quite unfortunate.”
