Fran­cis Joseph

Jus­tice Joan Charles has blocked to­day's de­por­ta­tion of a Niger­ian na­tion­al. Charles grant­ed tem­po­rary re­lief to Niger­ian Olalekan Sodiq, who was due to be de­port­ed to­day along with oth­er Nige­ri­ans de­tained at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison, Arou­ca.

Charles made the or­der, and even grant­ed leave to file for ju­di­cial re­view, af­ter pe­rus­ing af­fi­davits, in­clud­ing one from Sodiq's Trinida­di­an wife, Deann Stephen, who com­plained that she would suf­fer im­mense­ly if she los­es her hus­band. In her af­fi­davit Stephen stat­ed: "Olalekan is the first man to give me the love and re­spect that I feel I de­serve as a woman. "I have had many hard­ships in my life. Now I have a busi­ness and a hus­band who loves me." At­tor­ney Ravi Heffes-Doon, in­struct­ed by Kern Saney, made the ap­pli­ca­tion be­fore Charles in the Port-of-Spain High Court. Hear­ing has been ad­journed to Fri­day. Sodiq ar­rived in Trinidad in Oc­to­ber 2004. He was in­tran­sit and on his way to Grena­da. He was al­lowed to stay 24 hours in Trinidad. He over­stayed his time, trav­elled to To­ba­go and de­cid­ed to stay.

On May 27, 2008, Sodiq mar­ried Stephen, al­though the re­la­tion­ship start­ed in Jan­u­ary 2005. On June 16, 2008, he went to the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment in To­ba­go to reg­u­larise his sta­tus. But his Niger­ian pass­port was seized and he was in­struct­ed to re­turn on Ju­ly 1, 2008 with a tick­et to re­turn to Nige­ria.

Sodiq said he was un­able to raise mon­ey for a tick­et. A spe­cial in­quiry was held on Au­gust 14, 2008, fol­low­ing which he was de­tained pend­ing de­por­ta­tion.

His ap­peal to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was dis­missed on June 25, 2009.

Sodiq ap­plied to the Min­is­ter to re­con­sid­er the de­ci­sion to de­port. He made it on the ba­sis of the ex­is­tence of com­pas­sion­ate or hu­man­i­tar­i­an con­sid­er­a­tions. He said his de­por­ta­tion would de­stroy his mar­riage and it would cause in­tense emo­tion­al and eco­nom­ic hard­ship to a na­tion­al of T&T, Deann Stephen. He said it would al­so re­duce the qual­i­ty of his wife's life eco­nom­i­cal­ly. In her af­fi­davit, Stephen said pri­or to Sodiq's de­ten­tion, they resided at Arnos Vale Road, To­ba­go. She de­scribed the Niger­ian as her clos­est friend. She said her moth­er died when she was 13, while her fa­ther nev­er cared for her. She said she was mis­treat­ed and dis­ad­van­taged, and be­cause of that, she fled Trinidad and took up res­i­dence in To­ba­go. Stephen said she was a mak­er of craft goods and to­geth­er with her hus­band, es­tab­lished a store called Prim­i­tive Arts at Ply­mouth, To­ba­go. She said her hus­band and her­self look af­ter the busi­ness which thrived. Since Sodiq's de­ten­tion, Stephen said the busi­ness had suf­fered con­sid­er­ably.

"I am de­pressed and de­spon­dent. I don't sleep well and I cry un­con­trol­lably. I can­not de­sign or work prop­er­ly. We have a very hap­py and close mar­riage," Stephen added. She said if her hus­band was de­port­ed, she did not know where she would get the strength to start again. "Olalekan has giv­en me the bal­anced and hap­py life that I have been search­ing for all my years, both emo­tion­al­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly," she added.