Canadian immigration authorities have rejected the asylum application of retired Nigerian police officer Wale Akinpelu and his wife, Ajarat Mojirola, due to Mr. Akinpelu’s former employment with the Nigerian police — an institution known for corruption and human rights violations.
Justice Norris of a federal court in Ottawa, Ontario, on January 2, dismissed the refugee status request of the Nigerian couple, who fled Nigeria in 2017, claiming they were targeted by a criminal gang.
According to court filings seen by Peoples Gazette, Mrs. Akinpelu first traveled to the U.S. in May 2017, with her husband joining her in October 2017 shortly after resigning from the Nigerian Police Service. The couple moved to Canada in 2018, seeking refugee protection, alleging they faced threats from a criminal gang.
Court documents revealed that the couple admitted Mr. Akinpelu’s former corrupt colleagues in the Nigerian police had “scores to settle” with him — a statement that prompted Canadian immigration authorities to immediately suspend his asylum request.
Mr. Akinpelu’s asylum application was ultimately denied “on grounds of violating human or international rights due to his past employment as a police officer in Nigeria.” A judicial review upheld the rejection.
The couple’s applications were processed separately, allowing Mrs. Akinpelu’s case to proceed while her husband’s request remained suspended.
In March 2019, the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) denied Mrs. Akinpelu’s asylum claim after finding gaps in her assertions of needing protection. She appealed the decision, and the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) granted the appeal, ordering a fresh hearing.
However, in February 2023, the RPD again rejected Mrs. Akinpelu’s application, ruling that she was “neither a Convention refugee nor a person in need of protection because she had not credibly established the core elements of her claim.”
Mrs. Akinpelu contested the denial in court, arguing that the decision was procedurally unfair and unreasonable.
Justice Norris upheld the RPD’s findings, noting that Mrs. Akinpelu’s application relied heavily on documentary evidence provided by her husband, which was riddled with inconsistencies.
“The RPD found that the applicant’s husband’s narrative (which, for the most part, the applicant had simply adopted as her own) was not credible,” court documents stated.
The RPD deemed Mrs. Akinpelu an unreliable witness due to “the abundancy of inconsistencies and contradictions in her evidence, evolving testimony, and relying upon multiple fraudulent documents created specifically to bolster her allegations.”
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Her claims that her father-in-law, husband’s first wife, and daughter were killed in an attack were not convincingly substantiated.
When asked to address the contradictions, Mrs. Akinpelu gave a “vague, rambling testimony” and said she was unaware of any discrepancies because her husband had gathered the evidence.
The RPD noted that Mrs. Akinpelu showed no effort to have her husband clarify the contradictions in the documents, concluding that further questioning her would be an “exercise in futility.”
As a result, the judge dismissed Mrs. Akinpelu’s request for judicial review, paving the way for Canadian authorities to begin the standard deportation process.
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