Canada Deports Nigerian Pastor Linked to False Police Report
We are here to share helpful articles for those wishing to travel out, our articles are mainly for educational purpose only. some few Months a go, A Nigerian pastor said that in March 2022, his church was torched and he was chased to a police station by angry Muslims.
The Canadian federal court rejected a request to review the asylum denial of Nigerian pastor Lucky Bidemi Olorunfemi, determining that his evidence showed signs of fraud and bribery, leading to his deportation.
Justice McHaffie of Canada’s Federal Court in Toronto issued the decision on October 16, affirming an earlier ruling by the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) that concluded the evidence submitted by Mr. Olorunfemi lacked credibility and showed indications of manipulation.
Canada Deports Nigerian Pastor Linked to False Police Report
Mr. Olorunfemi, a Nigerian national who said he served as a pastor in Akure, Ondo State, applied for refugee protection in 2023 after moving to Canada. He alleged that his acceptance of LGBTQ individuals and pro-inclusive sermons provoked violent threats from what he described as “Muslim jihadists” intent on killing him.
He claimed that in March 2022, angry Muslims set fire to his church and pursued him to a police station, forcing him into hiding for about a year. According to his account, it was during this period in hiding that he secured a visa and later travelled to Canada.
To support his asylum claim, Mr. Olorunfemi presented four documents. However, Justice McHaffie questioned their reliability, stating that the materials contained numerous inconsistencies and exhibited signs of falsification.
Mr. Olorunfemi was represented in the Toronto proceedings by Abdul-Rahman Kadiri.
The documents submitted included a newspaper article describing an attempt on his life, a police invitation letter dated April 2022, a medical report relating to injuries allegedly sustained by his wife during a June 2024 attack, and a wanted notice purportedly issued by the “Odoua [sic] Peoples Congress.”
The RPD expressed serious concerns about the authenticity of all four documents. In particular, it found the newspaper article to be poorly written and riddled with errors, resembling what it described as “brown envelope journalism.” The court observed that the report lacked a direct source link and was accessible only through a generic website address.
Another issue flagged by the division was that the language used in the article closely mirrored Mr. Olorunfemi’s own narrative, raising suspicion that the report may have been fabricated at his request.
In his written decision, Justice McHaffie stated that the RPD reasonably concluded the newspaper article was likely manufactured, noting its grammatical flaws and striking similarity to the claimant’s allegations. He added that similar doubts applied to the police letter, medical report, and wanted poster, all of which contained significant authenticity issues.
The judge noted that Mr. Olorunfemi failed to provide a convincing explanation to rebut the RPD’s findings.
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Particular scrutiny was applied to the wanted poster allegedly issued by the Odoua Peoples Congress. Misspellings such as rendering “Oodua” as “Odoua” and “Yoruba” as “youruba”—along with other discrepancies, further undermined its credibility.
Canada Deports Nigerian Pastor Linked to False Police Report
Justice McHaffie added that the poster identified the individual in the photograph under a completely different name, a factor that independently supported the conclusion that the document was fraudulent.
The court also emphasized that the wanted notice lacked any contact information, a feature commonly present in comparable Nigerian police documents maintained in Canadian government records. Justice McHaffie rejected Mr. Olorunfemi’s argument that the RPD relied on trivial errors, stating that the entire asylum case rested on these documents and could not later be dismissed as inconsequential.
Canada Deports Nigerian Pastor Linked to False Police Report
He further criticized Mr. Olorunfemi for faulting the RPD for not independently verifying the materials, noting that it was the claimant who submitted documents devoid of verifiable contact details. The medical report, the judge observed, listed only a postal address and a Gmail account, without a phone number.
The court also pointed to inconsistencies in Mr. Olorunfemi’s testimony, including his assertion that he struggled with English an assertion contradicted when he was seen responding fluently to his own lawyer during proceedings.
Ultimately, Justice McHaffie agreed with the RPD’s assessment that Mr. Olorunfemi’s claims lacked credibility. He noted that the only established fact was Mr. Olorunfemi’s Nigerian nationality, confirmed by his passport and testimony.
The judge dismissed the application for judicial review, citing unreliable testimony and a failure to support the asylum claim with credible, authentic evidence.
