Nigerian Woman Granted Asylum in Britain After Eight Failed Attempts Following IPOB Membership

The 49-year-old Nigerian woman, who had her asylum requests rejected eight times, has finally been granted the right to stay in Britain after deliberately joining the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

A judge noted that the woman became involved with IPOB “in order to create a claim for asylum.”

She originally arrived in the UK in 2011 but only joined IPOB in 2017. The group, which advocates for the secession of Biafra from Nigeria, has been designated a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government, though it is not classified as such in the UK.

Upper tribunal judge Gemma Loughran said that because the woman was part of the group, she has a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ in her home country.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philip condemned the decision to grant the Nigerian woman asylum, calling it a “comically ludicrous” interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This ruling is part of a broader trend where tribunals have paused deportations or granted asylum based on human rights laws.

The woman argued that if she returned to Nigeria, she feared being arrested at the airport and “disappeared”.

Initially, a lower tribunal judge rejected her claim, citing insufficient evidence of her involvement with IPOB. Judge Iain Burnett even ruled that she had joined the group solely “in order to create a claim for asylum.”

However, the upper tribunal judge later overturned this decision, ruling that she would likely be identified as an IPOB activist upon her return, increasing her risk of persecution.

She ruled: ‘It is clear from the country background evidence that the security services act arbitrarily and arrest, harm and detain those it believes may be involved with IPOB without conducting an assessment of the extent of their involvement or their motivation.

‘The appeal is allowed on the basis that [the Nigerian woman] has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of her imputed political opinion arising from her involvement with IPOB in the UK.’