The Minister for Justice has agreed not to deport a Nigerian student who is due to start his Leaving Cert today, pending the outcome of a legal challenge to the deportation order, the High Court has heard.
Paul O'Shea, for Tunde Yinusa Omoniyi (20), said the application by his client could be adjourned on consent to July 4th. Mr Justice Paul Gilligan yesterday adjourned the case on those terms.
Mr Omoniyi, with an address at the Viking Lodge Hotel, Francis Street, Dublin, is seeking leave to bring a judicial review challenge to the deportation order of May 6th, which he received two weeks ago. Last Friday he secured leave to serve notice on the Minister for Justice of his intention to seek an order preventing his deportation.
Mr Omoniyi arrived here in August 2001 as an unaccompanied minor. He is a student at Palmerstown community school in west Dublin and is a friend of Olukunle Elukanlo, whose deportation to Nigeria three months ago resulted in a major campaign that led to his return to sit the Leaving Certificate.
If he secures leave to bring the challenge, he will seek various orders and declarations, including an order stating the deportation is of no legal effect.
Mr Omoniyi in an affidavit said there had been considerable change in his life since he arrived here, which had not been taken into account by the Minister and which he had not been afforded an opportunity to provide.
He said he would like to be given an opportunity to provide information on changes in his life and in his country of origin since July 15th, 2003, when he had applied to be allowed to remain in the State.
He added that the serving of the deportation order had had a devastating effect on his studies.