A lawyer of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Promise Nosiri, has been temporarily relieved of immigration issues after the Canadian federal court in Toronto, Ontario, agreed to review an earlier decision denying her asylum application.
Documents revealed that on April 3, Madam Justice Go set aside an earlier decision that rejected the asylum request of Mrs Nosiri, who claimed her family was persecuted by Nigeria’s secret police, State Security Service, due to her alleged ties with the IPOB.
Nosiri said a colleague in her law firm, was an active IPOB member who sometimes held “IPOB meetings in his office under the guise of community events.”
She stated that she was under severe scrutiny by the SSS agents who went after her husband and detained him for days when they were not able to track her location and arrest her.
She told the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD), the Canadian department responsible for granting or denying asylum status to immigrants, that her husband was picked up for interrogation about her whereabouts and was detained in their facility until he bribed the SSS officials to negotiate his freedom.
RAD however found Nosiri’s claim of alleged persecution and land dispute “unreasonable,” and asserted that it could not be fathomed why the she did not approach a Nigerian court to lodge her complaints, given her professional background in law.
But Nosiri was able to submit new evidence showing her husband’s text messages stating that “he was arrested by the DSS supposedly for interrogation but was instead detained for being a spouse of a wanted suspect.”
Courts document revealed that “the spouse was released only after he bribed a DSS officer, who is a friend, and was advised to disappear as he would be re-arrested.”
Also, Nosiri submitted group photos that she supposedly took with her colleague, the IPOB member, which may be used by security operatives in implicating her and linking her to the outlawed IPOB.
Ms Go of the federal court in Toronto said that the new evidence provided a different angle to Nosiri’s asylum application and thereby ordered that a different panel review the matter.
On April 3, Ms Go said: “The application for judicial review is granted.
“The decision under review is set aside and the matter referred back for redetermination by a different decision‐maker.”
Nosiri and her two children will reside in Canada until the matter is re-assessed and determined.
