UK Court blocks deportation of Nigerian man as his wife claims IVF treatment is unavailable in Nigeria

An earlier finding that set in motion the deportation of a 43-year-old Nigerian Olutobi Ogunbawo has been set aside by a UK upper tribunal.

A judge of a tribunal previously ordered that Ogunbawos deportation be suspended this was after Ogunbawos wife Maria Adesanya made a claim – that their access to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment would be impossible if they were deported to Nigeria.

It is noteworthy that Ogunbawo is appealing against a human rights claim on the basis that he was sentenced in 2019 for immigration offences, in the matter of an offence ‘in which he made a false paternity claim’ together with a British national.

In partnership with an unborn child’s father paid the British national so his partner could live in the UK.

Completed in 2020 a three-year prison sentence after he was imprisoned, he was subsequently put through deportation processes.

In January 2023, he commenced legal proceedings against his wife’s deportation against a first-tier tribunal judge who came up in support of her, citing ‘I a fact that the wife’s ability to conceive using IVF treatment in Nigeria was not heard in Nigeria as a defence to the appeal.

This argument was however challenged by the home department which stated that the tribunal’s reliance on the evidence Maria provided was unsubstantiated.

The upper tribunal entails in its ruling that the lower tribunal violated the laws since there were inconsistencies in what had been stated above and what was contained in the two documents.

The judgment criticized the initial decision, stating, “We conclude that the judge erred in exclusively relying upon Ms. A’s personal evidence when finding as a fact that IVF treatment is unavailable in Nigeria.”