Posted by Samuel on Wed 01st Oct, 2025 - tori.ng
The man further claimed that the group was smuggled through a back route into Togo after Ghanaian officials allegedly bribed local police. He added that the transfer was carried out without any formal notification to Togolese authorities.
A Nigerian man, who was recently deported from the United States, has raised concerns, alleging that Ghanaian immigration officials forcibly transported him and five others across the border before abandoning them in Togo.
According to a BBC report on Wednesday, the deportee, who requested anonymity, said Ghanaian officials deceived them by claiming they would be moved from a military camp to “better accommodation.” Instead, he alleged, they were secretly driven out and “dumped” in Togo.
The man further claimed that the group was smuggled through a back route into Togo after Ghanaian officials allegedly bribed local police. He added that the transfer was carried out without any formal notification to Togolese authorities.
He said, “They did not take us through the main border; they took us through the back door. They paid the police there and dropped us in Togo.”
Four of the deportees —.three Nigerians and a Liberian — have since checked into a hotel in Lomé, the Togolese capital just across the border.
With no documents, they are relying on hotel staff to receive financial assistance from relatives abroad.
“We’re struggling to survive in Togo without any documentation,” the man explained. “None of us has family in Togo. We’re just stuck in a hotel. Right now, we’re just trying to survive until our lawyers can help us with this situation.”
The man said conditions at the Ghanaian military camp were harsh, describing them as “deplorable.” “Life there was really hard, so we asked for a better place, better medication, better healthcare and better water,” he told the BBC.
He added that when officials arrived days later, claiming to move them to a hotel, they ended up in Togo instead.
“When we arrived, we asked what we were doing at the border, and they told us they wanted us to sign some paperwork so they could take us to a hotel, but we didn’t sign anything,” he said.
The deportee also spoke of the personal impact of his removal.
“I have a house in the US where my kids live. How am I supposed to pay the mortgage? I don’t know how they’ll manage while I’m gone. My kids can’t see me, and it’s just so stressful,” he lamented.
He is a member of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, an activist organisation advocating for a breakaway state in south-west Nigeria, and fears returning home could put him at risk of arrest or torture.
He also claimed he had US court-ordered protection that should have prevented his deportation, though the US government has not explained its decision.
The deportee was part of a wider group of West Africans—including nationals from Togo, Liberia, and The Gambia—who were flown from US detention facilities to Ghana last month. Lawyers for the group have filed legal action against both the US and Ghana, alleging violations of their rights.
Ghanaian officials, including Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the country accepted the deportees out of “pan-African empathy” and that no financial incentive was involved.
The deportation deal, announced by President John Mahama, has sparked calls from opposition MPs to suspend the arrangement until it is ratified by parliament, even as the government plans to accept another 40 deportees.