After spending 19 years in Canada, Nike Okafor was almost separated from her Canadian husband and family after her life was about to be upended by a surprise deportation order threat.
Her worries are now over.
Five months after NC News reported that she was encountering a sudden and forced return to Nigeria, the country she ran away from nearly two decades ago, Okafor reveals she can finally breathe a sigh of relief after she was recently granted permanent resident status.
She said: “I thank God for where I am today. This is where I’ve been longing to be.”
Her 21-year-old Nigerian-born son, Sydney, who also battled deportation, can now live a life not staggering on the edge of collapse.
While talking to CBC, Sydney said: “I’m just so happy my mother and I can stay in Canada with no worries after waiting so long. It’s been a long struggle.”
39-year-old Okafor arrived in Canada as an asylum seeker in 2003 with her son in tow and pregnant with another child.
As a Muslim, she had a son with a Christian man and felt if she stayed, he would be taken from her or experience worse things.
In subsequent years, Okafor went to school, got employed as a personal support worker, gave birth to two children, met the man she would marry and built a future she never dreamt of.
It appeared the future would crash after her refugee claim was denied. She appealed and was told to keep in close touch with the Canadian Border Services Agency.
In April, Okafor and Sydney received an impromptu deportation order from the CBSA irrespective of the fact that her husband filed a spousal sponsorship application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada over two years ago.
If the deportation had gone ahead, her two Canadian-born children would have said goodbye to their mother and her husband would have been separated from her.
While talking to CBC Toronto in July, Okafor said: “My whole life is here.”
Her husband, Rotimi Odunaiya said: “We are a family. Don’t split us.”
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