The High Court has refused to overturn a tribunal’s decision that international protection should not be granted to a Nigerian man who expressed fears he would be killed over his failure to join a cult.
Mr Justice Anthony Barr said the decision-maker at the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) found the man was “subjectively credible”, but his fears of persecution were “objectively unfounded”.
This finding was open to the tribunal, given the 53-year-old man had spent prolonged periods in Nigeria without being subjected to torture or harm, the judge said. The IPAT was entitled to reject the applicant’s assertion that his fear only “crystallised” in 2019 and that he could have sought protection in the UK, US or Germany, as he had travelled through those countries.
He held that the IPAT decision of January 2023 was validly made and should not be interfered with by the court.
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The man claimed he was born into a royal family and that his father’s death, when the man was aged seven, was said to have been due to his failure to join a cult and assume a cabinet position. He told the International Protection Office (IPO) he heard his father was killed by the invocation of spirits while he slept.
When the man received an invitation to join that cabinet in 2008, he was immediately concerned what would occur if he did not assume the post.
His wife travelled to the UK that year on a student visa, and he subsequently followed on a dependant’s visa. He later travelled to the US on a valid visa before returning to Nigeria in 2011 to get a visa for the UK, where he remained until 2014. He and his wife had children before separating in 2014.
The man returned to Nigeria but also appears to have moved around, visiting Germany twice between 2014 and 2019, the judge said.
He left Nigeria in December 2020, arriving in this State on a volunteer visa valid until May 2021.
He applied for international protection that April, with the IPO recommending in August 2022 that he should not be given refugee status or subsidiary protection.
The IPAT upheld this decision.
Seeking to overturn the IPAT rejection, the man’s lawyers told the court that the IPAT decision-maker erroneously dealt with information about Nigeria and incorrectly concluded the information is “at best neutral and does not enhance” the man’s claim.
The judge agreed with the tribunal’s submission that its decision was being picked apart on an isolated basis and that it should be considered as a whole.
Mr Justice Barr said the decision considered information related to Nigeria and demonstrated a “balanced analysis” of this evidence.
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