I am a PhD student, I didn’t commit any offence - One of the US deportees claim

macfranc007 June 21, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Nurudeen Lawal

- Most of the 34 Nigerians deported from the US on Wednesday, June 20, said they were wrongly deported

- They said most of them were deported for minor offences which should not have warranted deportation

- One of them claimed to be a PhD student in the US and was yet to complete his course before hewas forcefully repatriated

Nigerians who were deported from the United States of America (USA) on Wednesday, June 20 have claimed that they were wrongly deported.

According to Daily Independent, the deportees alleged that most of them were returned to Nigeria for minor infractions which should not have warranted deportation.

Though, most of the deportees were not willing to talk to the media, one of them identified as Charles Nwankwo, who claimed to be a PhD student in the US insisted that his deportation was wrongly carried out.

According to Nwankwo, the police arrested him in his house for committing no offence and he had been challenging his impending deportation in the court.

He decried that the case was still ongoing in the court before he was forcefully removed from the detention camp on Tuesday, June 19, in the US and ferried to Nigeria.

He called on the Nigerian government to wade into illegal deportation of Nigerians especially since the Donald Trump’s administration came on board.

He said: “I am a PhD student in the US and I was yet to complete my course before I was forcefully repatriated. I didn’t commit any offence in that country. I was surprise that I could be deported like a criminal like this.”

Also, Olusegun Olatunji said he had been residing in the US in the past 30 years.

According to Olatunji, he never committed any infraction in the US beside importing herbs from China, which the government claimed was counterfeit.

He lamented that he was fined $41,000 by the government, which he paid and wondered why he should still be repatriated to Nigeria after paying the sum.

He, however, said that some of the deportees overstayed in the US while others committed traffic offence, stressing that these were minor offences, which should not have warranted their deportation.

He said: “I would have spent 30 years in the US by 18 October. I have been in the US without any infraction. The only infraction I have was that I ordered merchandise from China; herbs and they claimed the herbs were counterfeit.

“That was my so called offence and I was ordered to pay $41,000, which I paid to the government. They still confiscated the merchandise after paying the sum, but despite this, they still deported me. I have never committed any infraction in the US apart from importing these herbs from China.

“Most of us here have cases in different courts in the US, but the government did not allow us to see the resolution of the case. They just took us by force and deported us from the US. This is quite unfortunate.”

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Pope Francis criticised the United States' president, Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy that is leading to the separation of migrant children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.

The pontiff described the immigration policy as immoral, adding that "populism is not the solution" to America’s immigration crisis.

President Trump had earlier defended the policy, saying it was necessary.

He claimed that his political opponents wanted “illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country, like (the gang) MS-13”.

Street Gist: Will Nigeria be a better place with Trump as president? | on NAIJ.com TV