“Dumped at the Border”: Nigerian Man Deported from US Says Ghana Secretly Transferred Him to Togo

A Nigerian man deported from the United States has accused Ghanaian authorities of secretly dumping him and five others in Togo, leaving them stranded and without documents.

The man, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told the BBC that after being deported from the US to Ghana last month, he and other West African deportees were told they would be moved from a military camp to “better accommodation.” Instead, they were allegedly driven through a back route, bribing local officers along the way, before being abandoned at the Togo border.

“They did not take us through the main border. They paid the police there and dropped us in Togo,” he said.

Now living in a small hotel in Lomé, the Togolese capital, the deportee said he is surviving on money wired by relatives abroad.

“We’re struggling to survive in Togo without any documentation. None of us has family here. We’re just stuck,” he said.

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‘Pan-African empathy’ or political misstep?

The United States had deported several West African nationals — including Nigerians, Liberians, Gambians, and Togolese — as part of its immigration crackdown.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said his country accepted the deportees “in the spirit of pan-African empathy,” after the US reportedly requested Accra to receive them.

However, the Nigerian man’s claim of being “dumped” in Togo has drawn criticism of Ghana’s handling of the deportees. Lawyers representing the group have filed lawsuits against both the US and Ghanaian governments, alleging violations of human rights and due process.

Opposition lawmakers in Ghana have demanded a suspension of the deal, arguing that it was never ratified by parliament.

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‘We only accepted those cleared by due process’ — US and Ghana respond

US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the BBC that all deportees had been found guilty of immigration violations and had received “due process” before removal. She said many had “heinous criminal records, including assault, robbery, and fraud.”

Ghana’s President John Mahama also stressed that the country “will not become a dumping ground for deportees or accept individuals with criminal backgrounds.”

The Nigerian man admitted to a 2020 conviction for conspiracy to commit bank fraud in the US, for which he served a two-year sentence, but claimed a court protection order should have prevented his deportation.

He also expressed fears of returning to Nigeria, saying his affiliation with the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement — a group advocating for a breakaway Yoruba nation — could lead to his arrest and torture.

“I have a house in the US where my kids live. I don’t know how they’ll manage. My deportation has destroyed everything,” he lamented.

For now, the stranded deportees remain in limbo in Lomé — victims, they say, of a geopolitical arrangement gone wrong.

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