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Tag: deportation

  • UK to deport man over wife’s low salary

    UK to deport man over wife’s low salary

    A South African, Michael Engel, is set to be deported from the United Kingdom (UK) after a court ruled that his British wife’s salary was not high enough.

    Mr. Engel, a 31-year-old living in Cornwall, said he and wife Natalie plan to go back to South Africa with their 18-month-old daughter Nyana.

    A Home Office spokesman said the rules were designed to stop foreign spouses from becoming reliant on UK taxpayers.

    The BBC reports that the couple were told of the immigration tribunal’s ruling after they had appealed on the grounds of a right to family life.

    Responding, Engel said the “bizarre” Immigration System Rules were “attacking British citizens”.

    However, under the rules that were introduced in 2012, British citizens who want to bring a foreign spouse to the UK must earn £18,600 a year and a further £3,800 – a total of £22,400 – if the couple have a child.

    Mrs. Engel’s business made £19,786 in 2014 which was deemed not enough by the tribunal panel, which met on 3 December.

    She said the decision made her feel like her family was being “kicked out” of the country.

    She said: “I’m gobsmacked, lost for words, angry and deflated. I’m not so proud to be British right now.”

    But Judge Michael Wilson, who heard the appeal, said UK taxpayers “should not be expected to have to financially support the appellant in the event of him not obtaining work”.

    The couple are now awaiting a deportation date.

    Mr. Engel said: “We did everything in our power to tick all the boxes.

    “They are just attacking the wrong people – they are attacking British citizens.”

    Engel and Natalie met in 2009 while working on a cruise ship and lived in South Africa for four years.

    They moved to the UK in January 2013 with Mr. Engel on a holiday visa, living first in Yorkshire and then in Cornwall.

    In a statement the Home Office said: “Our family rules were brought in to make sure that spouses coming to the UK do not become reliant on the taxpayer for financial support.

    “This is fair to applicants and to the rest of the public, and has been upheld by the Court of Appeal.”

    Average gross full time pay in Cornwall was £23,305 for the year ending April 2014, compared with £27,195 for the UK, according to the Office for National Statistic.

    North Cornwall Liberal Democrat MP, Dan Rogerson, said in October: “It’s absolutely right that anyone who comes to settle in this country has the resources to do that and is not going to claim benefits straight away.

    “But I think it’s also important that we get the thresholds right, so that in low income areas like Cornwall, we are not disadvantaging people.

    “We need to keep families together who want to settle here.”

  • Alleged deportation: Court adjourns suit

    Alleged deportation: Court adjourns suit

    The Federal High Court in Lagos has adjourned till April 3, the hearing of a suit by 76 Igbo against Lagos State government for allegedly ‘deporting’ them to the Southeast.

    The court granted the respondents time to regularise their processes.

    The applicants sought an order mandating the state to tender a written apology to them, to be published in three national newspapers continuously for 30 days from the date of the first publication.

    They sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents or their agents from further ‘deporting’ or refusing them free entry to and exit from the state.

    Seven of the applicants sued for themselves and “on behalf of those 76 persons ‘deported’ from Lagos State and dumped/abandoned at Onitsha, Anambra State on July 24, 2013.”

    They are Joseph Aniebonam, Osondu Mbuto, Osondu Agwu, Nnenna Ogbonna, Emily Okoroariri, Friday Ndukwu and Onyeka Ugwa.

    Lagos Attorney-General Ade Ipaye and Police Commissioner Umar Manko are the respondents.

    The applicants, through their Onitsha-based lawyer, Chief Ugo Ugwunnadi, of Okusuanamiri Chambers, sought a declaration that they were Nigerian citizens entitled to the enjoyment of their rights as provide for in sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution and relevant sections of the African Charter.

    According to them, their alleged arrest and detention in camps, Oshodi rehabilitation centre, police cells and prisons in Lagos for no offence and without trial amount to a serious breach of their rights.

    They sought an order mandating Lagos to reabsorb and accommodate them within the state as they are Nigerian citizens entitled to live in any part of the country.

    One of those ‘deported’, Mr. Onyeka Ugwa, who hails from Orlu in Imo State, said in a supporting affidavit that he lived in Lagos for over five years and sold novels under a bridge in Okokomaiko, Lagos.

    He alleged that he was arrested by policemen and officers of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) in January last year and taken to a rehabilitation centre in Oshodi, where he was “dumped and abandoned.”

    Ugwa said he was transferred to a detention camp, where he met other Igbo.

    He said on July 23 last year, armed policemen and other persons drove into the camp, identified those who were Igbo, separated and bundled them into buses, and left in a convoy without being told where they were going.

    He said the bus kept moving throughout the night until they were taken to Upper Iweka in Onitsha, Anambra State, at the wee hours of July 24.

    The Deputy Director in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Governor on Youth and Social Development, Olabode Ajao, said the respondents did not ‘deport’ the applicants as alleged.

    He said it was a state policy to cater for the welfare of residents, irrespective of state of origin, and that it does its best to ensure that they were employed and properly-accommodated so that they do not constitute a nuisance to society.

  • Plateau prepares 241 illegal immigrants for deportation

    THE Plateau State government in collaboration with the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has arrested 241 immigrants in the state.

    The Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yiljab Abraham, stated this yesterday while addressing reporters in Jos.

    The suspects, Abraham assured, will be deported soon.

    The commissioner said: “Most of the arrested suspects could be a threat to the prevailing peace in the state if not deported.”

    He advised residents to be watchful and report suspicious persons to security operatives immediately.

    On attacks last Thursday by gunmen, Abraham said: “The incident was not an attack or outbreak of violence but an armed robbery case.”

    He stated that six suspects have been arrested in connection with the case.

    The commissioner also said reports of cattle getting last around Jos East have been received, stating over 100 of the cattle have however been recovered by vigilance groups.

     

  • Lagos explains ‘deportation’ procedure

    The Lagos State government yesterday explained its welfare policy, including the resettlement of indigent persons to their states.

    It said only people who express a desire to return to their states were helped to return.

    It said before they are resettled with their families, such persons are housed, cleaned up, fed, given medical treatment when needed, and asked how the government could assist them.

    The Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Alhaji Lawal Pedro (SAN), spoke on behalf of Governor Babatunde Fashola at the Christian Lawyers Association of Nigeria (CLASFON) National Conference in Lagos.

    The theme of the event was: “Arise and Build”. A paper was delivered on: “Security components for sustainable national growth: Enhancing the macro and micro quotients”.

    Pedro said the government was making efforts to ensure that people coming into Lagos do not constitute security threats to residents.

    On how the destitute are resettled, he said: “We rehabilitate them, feed them and ask them what they want. Sometimes, what they want is money to return to their home states to be with their families. The least we can do is to help them find their route.”

    Police Commissioner Umar Manko thanked the state government for equipping the police through the Security Trust Fund.

    He said the command had received ammunition and over 300 vehicles from the state government in the past one year.

    Manko said: “That is why there is relative peace in Lagos. If this nation wants security, we must pay for it.”

    He said an average policeman is well-trained, but cannot perform without equipment.

  • The Lagos deportation saga and 2015 politics

    Given the irresponsible and remorseless exploitation by Bode George and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of the controversy that arose from the ‘deportation’ of some Anambrarians from Lagos recently, it is guaranteed that the matter will linger well into the 2015 general elections. Even if we ignore the fact that the so-called deportation, or resettlement as Lagos described it, has been going on in some states for a while, the problem is sufficiently serious enough to alert the country’s leadership and all patriotic Nigerians to the potentially explosive problem of how to define an indigene of a state, and what his rights and obligations are. The problem has been left dangerously unattended to for far too long.

    I think the Lagos State government was not sensitive enough to the implications of resettling those it described as destitute. It must find ways of making amends, whether it meant well in taking the action or not, or whether others had done it before or not. But Anambra and all those prattling about the rights of the destitute must also understand the security concerns of Lagos, the limited resources at the disposal of the state, the fact that the federal government has irresponsibly not made any special allocation to assist Lagos in tackling its worsening social and economic pressures, and the fact that there is a limit to how Lagos can cater for the jobless and the dispossessed within its borders. In any case it is hard to see how resettling a little over a dozen people constitutes a deliberate and wide-ranging policy of discrimination against anyone or state, let alone an ethnic group.

    It is indeed a reflection of the unresolved national question, an issue that is worsening as the years go by, that the Igbo somehow inexplicably and hysterically rose up nearly in unison to attack Lagos for discriminatory practices. Very incendiary remarks have been made, and there are threats of political backlash against the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015. There has also been incredibly silly and inaccurate talk of Lagos being a no man’s land, especially by its nature as a former federal capital. In the past one decade or more, and as Lagos began to rebuild its collapsed infrastructure, it has become a magnet for millions of Nigeria, thus further putting pressure on its limited resources. The challenge before the state is how to cope with these pressures; and its dilemma is how to define the Lagosian within the ambit of the constitution.

    Lagos State is undisputedly the navel of the former Western Region. There is no conceivable ethnographic argument that will make it less so. Indeed, in the light of the crisis in Plateau State, it is irresponsible that any group could hint directly that it would introduce and even actively nurture ethnic politics in the 2015 elections in Lagos. This indicates that the controversy over definition of a state indigene in Nigeria is too urgent to be postponed or left to resolve itself. Time will not resolve it.

    In my numerous contributions on the Plateau crisis, I had suggested it was unrealistic, as the National Assembly has unwisely tried to do, to define a state indigene as the Americans do. Nigerian ethnic groups have an unbreakable and fanatical attachment to their lands and languages. It is pointless to make it otherwise. Unlike the Americans and Australians who shoved aside indigenous populations and virtually rewrote their histories afresh, Nigerians are unlikely to ever admit to that kind of novelty. I go as far as to suggest that linguistic affinity should be the basis of Nigeria’s federal arrangement if we really want to settle the national question and achieve peace.

    I sympathise with Lagos and appreciate the dilemma it faces in trying to provide the good life for its indigenes and all taxpaying Nigerians resident and working in the state. It should patiently and cautiously approach the problem and do its best to resolve all lingering issues and disagreements within the framework of a united country. It must learn to ignore peddlers of hate ideology as it strives to build a multicultural megacity and work out ways to resist and defeat those who try to exploit ethnic differences. The problem is, however, not Lagos alone, or first, to resolve. The initiative must come from the centre, and the problem must be tackled holistically. Sadly, the Jonathan government and the unconscionable leaders of the PDP in the state, as the last political campaigns showed, are more eager to fan ethnic hatred for political gains than provide the leadership these dangerous times need.

  • “Deportation” saga: Anambra’s to blame

    SIR: I had cause to speak on the vexed issue of the relocation of some indigenes of Anambra State from Lagos to Onitsha at a private forum in Lagos last weekend.  Based on the facts then available to me, I condemned the action of the Lagos State government (LASG) and also blamed Anambra State government (ANSG) for resorting to letter writing to President Jonathan each time the issue arose instead of confronting the problem frontally. I had also argued that Anambra State government should have screened the alleged 72 returnees, identify those from Anambra State and rehabilitate them while returning the non-Anambrarians back to the sender.

    Most unfortunately but not unexpectedly, my views  were  maliciously and mischievously distorted by the media aides of the Anambra State governor and planted in some national dailies and on the internet. The sole intention was to pitch me against my elder brother, Senator Chris Ngige who had criticized the handling of the matter by the Anambra State government  and sow discord between me and my brother silk, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN.

    Let me make it clear that the wicked plot of the Anambra State government has failed abysmally.  Nigerians and Anambrarians can no longer be fooled.

    It is noteworthy that at the time I made the said remarks at the private forum, I was not privy to the exchange of correspondences between the Lagos State government and its Anambra State counterpart.  However, after the event, I read the  emerging  correspondences  and reports on the strong defence mounted by the LASG.  It then became obvious to me that the documents showed clearly that LASG had by March 2013 intimated ANSG on the planned transfer of the destitute. It is equally apparent from the documents that it was a clear case of dereliction of duty by the ANSG. The Anambra State government has no excuse whatsoever not to follow through on the transfer after acknowledging letters from LASG and agreeing on the exchange date. Further reading the letters, I have no doubt whatsoever that the blame for the current debacle rests squarely with ANSG despite its desperation to politicize the matter with the unholy aim of gaining votes from the crisis during the forthcoming  Anambra State governorship election in November.

    It is apparent that the  controversy would have been averted had the ANSG played its part as agreed. What is clearly in issue is that ANSG wrote to LASG requesting ‘urgently’ for particulars of the destitute claiming to be indigenes of Anambra State so as to “facilitate their integration with their families if they are from Anambra”.  LASG responded with a list of 14 names including their particulars and requested the presence of ANSG officials for a screening exercise at  the Ikorodu Rehabilitation Centre. Anambra State Government  never got back to LASG!   Anambra governor now alleges that 72 persons were repatriated instead of  only  14.  Where is the honour? Where is the integrity?  This is obviously a very sad reminder of the Nigerian Governors Forum election where 16 became a majority against 19 and the Anambra governor was in the fore-front of this show of shame.

    The Anambra State government  should simply apologise to the Fashola administration for maligning  the administration and  misinforming Nigerians on the issue and stop this unethical and ungodly ethnic politics. LASG remains the most friendly government to Anambrarians and Ndigbo in general more than any other state in Nigeria.

     

     

    • Emeka Ngige, SAN

    Lagos

     

  • Still on the deportation saga

    I have read with some concern comments from certain sections of Ndigbo on the controversial deportation of some destitute to Anambra State by the Lagos State government. I have read the reaction of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, and a more detailed reaction from his Special Adviser on Youths and Social Development, Dolapo Enitan Badru, and I am yet to see any such detailed response from the Anambra State Government. What it did was to send a “strongly-worded” protest letter to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The president is yet to respond to the letter. According to Governor Fashola, who spoke to the media on the issue, “it is unfortunate that my colleague governor has made this a media issue. As I speak to you, I haven’t received any telephone call or letter from him, complaining over the issue and I don’t think that is the way government works. The relationship between Lagos and Anambra has always remained cordial. I remember that on less important matters, he had called me before and we discussed at length.

    I know that this is a political season and Anambra will be up for contest. In a political season, unusual things happen and perhaps, we are living in an interesting time”. Speaking on the matter, Badru said: “We (Lagos State Government) wrote letters to Anambra State Government through its Lagos Liaison Office. It is not just Anambra we wrote a letter to. We wrote to Kano State. We wrote to Ondo State. We wrote to Jigawa State. We wrote to Katsina State. Every state has its own file. In the same way, we wrote to Anambra that we got some destitute on the streets that claimed to be indigenes of your state.

    “We asked the Anambra State Government to send people from their Liaison Office to come and interview the destitute to ascertain if they are actually from Anambra so that we know who is lying and who is not. Some will come. Some will ignore us. If you go to our rehabilitation facility in Majidun, we have more than 1,500 destitute there. The number keeps going up. We keep and feed (them) three times daily. In a place designed for 1,200 people, there are about 2,000 there. That is a recipe for chaos. When we treat them, we try to teach them a trade before we relocate them to their states. But they prefer to go back to the street and beg.

    “Anambra State Government wrote us back. The state government asked us to detail the status of those under our care and protection local government by local government. We did it as directed and then wrote the state government back, indicating the status of destitute who claimed to be from Anambra. Since April we have done that, there is no response from the state. We also put through series of phone calls to them, there was no response. We then decided we could not continue to keep these people under our care and protection. We thus took them to their place so that their state government can find a way to re-unite them with their parents.

    “We did not forcefully relocate any person to Onitsha; neither did we deport. We are not immigration; neither are we a country that we should deport. What happened is that we actually traced their families one after the other. We went through the Department of Social Welfare of Anambra State.

    May I then ask, is it true that Lagos State Government wrote to some states government asking them to come forward and take those identified as their people away from the streets of Lagos? Is it true that that these states came and carried away their own “destitute”? Did Anambra State Government get such a request? Did they make any effort to ascertain if these “destitute” were their people, were truly destitute? Did anybody make any effort to talk to the Governor of Lagos over the issue before the deportation was carried out? Is it true that there was an arrangement between Lagos and Anambra states to meet at Onitsha Head Bridge for the purposes of taking over and taking care of these “destitute” and that when they got to the place there was nobody from the state to meet them?

    I ask these questions because they have been thrown up by the so-called wide-spread anger over the deportation. I have seen the letter from Lagos State Government, the acknowledgement from the Anambra State Liaison officer in Lagos, who went further to request a list of the destitute involved. If the arrangement to transfer them to the state was bungled from that end, do we now blame Lagos for our own inefficiency?

    To worsen the matter, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, rather than call his Lagos counterpart to discuss the matter, chose to write a protest letter to President Jonathan, threatening in the process to retaliate. And I ask, retaliate against whom? How many destitute of Yoruba ethnic group do you have in the whole of Igbo land? By writing Jonathan was Governor Obi expecting the President to call Fashola and flog him? Or order him to take back the destitute?

    My point is: we ought to be realistic and weigh our actions before we take them. The way some of us have reacted to the development leaves much to be desired.

    A lot of folks are being emotional about the issue and are hence guilty of poor judgment. Yet others see it from political angle and hope to score some cheap political point from the unfortunate development. My advice to all Ndigbo, who feel hurt by the development, is to ask questions and get answers before jumping to conclusions.

    I am neither saying what Lagos did is correct nor am I saying it was right to deny any Nigerian the right to freely live, move in any part of the federation. But we must also admit that Lagos has the right to clear its streets of any form of social menace. I also look forward to the day they would stop area boys from harassing and extorting money from people, who buy machines and other private stuffs, and rein in on them to save people like us from constant harassment. My only worry, though, is that these area boys include Igbos too. So, what am I saying? Let us not rush to judgments. Of the 36 states of the federation, Lagos still remains the most Igbo-friendly. And I mean every word of it. It is the only state where an Igbo man is a commissioner; and it is not because his kind is in short supply in the state. Rather they are in abundance not just in the state but all through the South-west geo-political zone. Does this count? Yes. It does.

    It’s better to deport me to my state than to continue to murder me and burn, loot my property at the slightest provocation. This has been going on in some parts of the country for years, but definitely not Lagos.

    Most importantly, it is not only Igbo destitute that have been removed from the streets of Lagos; only recently destitute from Ondo State were equally moved to their state of origin. These are Yoruba people. So why are Ndigbo reacting as if we are being systematically targeted? Why are we making it look as if everybody is against us?

    Having said that, let our government go and interview those “deported”, sieve innocent ones among them and return them to Lagos where they have every right to live according to the laws of the federation and that of the state. Then let them rehabilitate the destitute among them in Anambra. Anything short of this would amount to naked politicking and shadow chasing in the face of bare facts.

    • Chukwuelobe wrote from Lagos

     

  • ‘Deportation’ claim political, says Fashola

    ‘Deportation’ claim political, says Fashola

    Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola yesterday described as “political” the raging controversy over the resettlement of 67 people from Lagos in Onitsha, Anambra state.

    Speaking for the first time on the issue, which has been raging since last week, Fashola told reporters after inspecting the on-going light rail project and Jetties in Mile 2 area of the state, that the propaganda on the issue was meant to tarnish the reputation and credibility of his government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the November 16 governorship election in that state.

    The 67 Igbo were allegedly ‘deported’ from Lagos to Onitsha where they were said to have been abandoned.

    But Police Commissioner Umar Manko denied the deportation claim.

    Fashola said: “It is unfortunate that my colleague governor (of Anambra State Peter Obi) made this a media issue. As I speak, I haven’t received any telephone call or letter from him to complain. And I don’t think that is the way government works. On less important matters like this, he had called me before.

    “This is a political season and Anambra State will be up for a contest. And in a political season, unusual things happen and perhaps we are living in an interesting time. And some of the evidence was when one sees two adults kissing on television, it tells you that something is at foot. And it is really important to say that our hospitality in Lagos State is legendary.

    “And it is a global legend that the people of Lagos state are hospitable people. And so is the present government of the state and previous administrations.”

    Fashola explained that those hiding under the controversy to portray the state government in a bad light before the Igbo speaking communities have failed to realise the existing bond between the government and the Igbo residents over the years.

    He said: “I think there is a large Igbo community in the state. And their presence is evident in Alaba with the Alaba International Market and the ASPAMDA market. And they are doing their business peacefully while the state government is working tirelessly to provide the required transport system that will help improve the travel time and their businesses.

    “There is too much at stake for anyone to begin to incite the Igbo community against their host state. There is too much at stake here. It is a very dangerous and unwarranted precedent.

    “And I hope that common sense will prevail here. Also, those who are praying for blood should know that there is too much at risk here.”

    The governor said when he gets a formal complaint from the Anambra State government or a notification from the Presidency, to which Governor Obi allegedly petitioned, he would lay the facts bare.

    He said the government is determined to complete the rail project, adding that tremendous progress had been made on the tracking.

    Fashola said five major transportation solutions were simultaneously being implemented in the state. According to him, the state government-owned ferry services will be subsidised when it starts operations.

    He said the state government had issued licences to 59 operators, who acquired 109 ferries, adding that over 1.8 million Lagosians commute from one location to the other, using the ferry services.

    Senator Chris Ngige has thrown more light on the issue, courtesy of a July 30 letter he wrote to the President of an Igbo professional group, Aka Ikenga.

    The group had, at a meeting on July 28, requested Dr. Ngige, a senator elected on the ticket of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (A CN), to find out what transpired.

    Ngige said after his meeting with Fashola, he discovered that it was not about deportation “but a social welfare intervention involving several homeless destitute and other psychiatric cases roaming the streets and some living under the bridges in Lagos”.

    Ngige added in the letter: “These people were taken in and treated and cared for by the Lagos State Government free of charge and thereafter needed to be reintegrated with their families.

    “After this rehabilitation, the affected people disclosed their true identities and the disclosure revealed that 14 of them were from Anambra State. For the purpose of reintegration with their kith and kin back home (most of them have nobody in Lagos) and for further social support and care, Lagos State Government communicated the Anambra State Government as well as other affected state governments to come forward and identify and take over their people.

    “On receipt of this communication, Anambra State Government requested for the identities of those claiming to be from the state (see letter as annex 2). The list was promptly supplied to them by Lagos State for immediate and urgent action (see letter as annex 3).

    “With further contact and pressure, Anambra State Government preferred that the handing over be done at Onitsha Bridgehead and Lagos State obliged but found no Anambra State Government representative on arrival on the agreed date and was hence forced to leave the people at a government office they found at the Niger Bridgehead.

    “The Lagos State Government further explained that this kind of exchange of destitute occurs between states, as she recently went to Akwa Ibom State to take back two of her rehabilitated citizens.

    “You will recall Mr. President of Aka Ikenga that I had assured the Aka Ikenga members that the Lagos State Government that I am familiar with will not go out of its way to cause hardship to our people and this is evident in its deposition as the first Government of Lagos State to appoint Igbo as commissioner and many others into other cabinet political position.

    “For the promotion and maintenance of the good relationship that exists between the Igbo who form about 25 per cent of the population of Lagos State and their Lagos host, I have secured an appointment for you, the President and Executive members of Aka Ikenga to further discuss this matter and other sundry issues affecting Ndi Igbo in Lagos, with the Lagos State Governor on a date that will be mutually agreed to by both parties.

    “As a member of Action Congress of Nigeria the (ACN), which is the party in power in Lagos State, I wish to further reassure you and Aka Ikenga in particular and Ndi Igbo in general, that the government of Lagos State, that I am familiar with does not and will not habour any anti-Igbo agenda, as is being insinuated in certain quarters.”

  • Reps condemn deportation of Israeli

    Reps condemn deportation of Israeli

    The House of Representatives has begun investigation into the circumstances leading to the deportation of a foreign construction worker.

    The decision followed the adoption of a motion raised under matters of urgent national importance by Razak Belo-Osagie (ACN, Edo).

    Belo-Osagie said Yaniv Dabah, an Israeli, who works with Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), the company handling the renovation of 5-Junction in Benin City, Edo State, ran into trouble after making clarification on the status of the project.

    He said: “It was noted that during the recent good governance tour led by the Minister of Information, the erroneous impression was created that it was a Federal Government project.

    “But we are aware that upon further enquiry, it was clarified by Dabah that the project was being executed by the Edo State Government.

    “It is disturbing that it was after the clarification that Dabah was subsequently deported, a situation that portends grave consequences for the completion of the project and the country’s image.”

    The lawmaker, who questioned the timing and intent of the deportation, said the deportation has damaging consequences on the country’s image.

    “At a time we are clamouring for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the power sector, oil and gas as well as manufacturing, what impression are we creating with this manner of deportation?

    “How do we reconcile our clamour for the FDI with this development?” he lamented.

    Belo-Osagie asserted that the deportation could be a reprisal action against the state’s stance on the good governance tour.

    “Even if the man had immigration issues, why wait till after making clarifications on who engaged his company on a particular project.

    “Why can’t we play by the rules of engagement?

    “As it is, this man is clearly a casualty for telling the truth.

    “The development is unfortunate, what is wrong in correcting an impression.

    “Could the deportation be a backlash of Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s refusal to commit state’s resources to the good governance tour?

    “This is the most profound executive rascality and is clearly unacceptable to any civilised society.

    “People should not be sacrificed for telling the truth, we need to know the truth about the whole incident.”

    The motion was overwhelmingly supported when it was put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha.

    The Committees on Works, Foreign Affairs and Interior were mandated to investigate who awarded the project and the circumstances surrounding the deportation.

    They are to submit their reports in four weeks.