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An immigration services officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been arrested in Maryland on a federal charge that alleges he obtained U.S. citizenship under a false name. The defendant is charged under the false name of “Karl Nwabugwu Odike Ifemembi,” but the criminal complaint in this case notes that his real name is Modestus Nwagubwu Ifemembi, originally of Nigeria. Ifemembi, 48, who previously resided in Aliso Viejo, but relocated to Rockville, Maryland, last year, has worked for USCIS for seven years. Ifemembi is charged in the complaint with one count of unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship. Ifemembi made false statements on various government forms to obtain U.S. citizenship, as well as employment with USCIS, according to the affidavit in support of the complaint, which was unsealed this morning. Ifemembi first entered the United States in 2000 when he flew from France to Chicago with a British passport that had been issued to another person but had been altered to display Ifemembi’s photograph, according to the affidavit. While immigration officials in Chicago caught Ifemembi – who admitted his fraudulent use of the U.K. passport, the affidavit states – he ultimately was granted asylum after falsely claiming his real name was “Karlos Mourfy” and that he was a native of Sierra Leone. After being granted asylum, Ifemembi attended the University of California, Berkeley, which granted him a bachelor’s degree in 2004, and then obtained J.D. from the University of Oregon, School of Law. Then, in late 2010, “Karlos Mourfy” applied for U.S. citizenship and asked to change his name to Ifemembi – requests that were granted in May 2011. Two years later, in 2013, Ifemembi was hired by USCIS, according to the affidavit. During the investigation into Ifemembi, federal investigators traveled to Africa – including his hometown of Akuma, Nigeria – and searched his Orange County residence in 2019, obtaining evidence about his true identity, including baptism, school and financial records, the affidavit states. Ifemembi is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland. The charge of unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, and upon conviction, U.S. citizenship is automatically revoked. Source: Afrotimes news: https://afrotimesnews.com/2022/06/07/nigerian-federal-immigration-official-charged-with-illegally-obtaining-u-s-citizenship-under-fake-identity/
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A Nigerian woman, Anna Omokhaye and her daughter Titi, have exhausted most of their avenues of appeal to challenge Canada’s decision to deport them back to Nigeria, from where they fled three years ago. And, because Titi’s father, according to her mother, is ultra traditional, there’s concern Titi may be married off or face genital mutilation if she goes back. “He wants to use her, the first-born girl, in a traditional ceremonial sacrifice to the gods. And, if that happens, she’s not going to be like she used to. After the sacrifice, she might become, God forbid, barren or mentally not balanced,” says Anna, who works in the environmental service department at The Ottawa Hospital, where she’s been since shortly before the pandemic. It was Anna’s opposition to a ceremonial sacrifice that initially led her to flee Nigeria in 2018, exacerbated by unrelated violence in the country in which two of her siblings were slain in 2011 and 2017, she said. She arrived first in Maryland, spending four months there, before coming to Montreal. A month later, she moved to Ottawa. In her basis for claim for refugee status, Anna cited the killings of her siblings in what amounted to another family trying to take over her family’s property. That claim was denied in March 2019, with the judge deciding on an internal flight alternative, or IFA, a common response suggesting that Anna and Titi were not in grave danger and could move to a different city in Nigeria. A subsequent appeal was dismissed by the Refugee Appeal Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, as was a request for a judicial review. Last summer, an appeal to federal court was also dismissed. Her lawyer says the decision to deny Anna refugee status “doesn’t take into consideration that the whole of Nigeria is a time bomb. Everybody is telling their citizens not to go there, so how can we then say that she could just move to another part of the country?” Adegunwa says an application for a judicial review filed in November is still pending, while an application for a stay of removal is expected to be filed this week so Anna and Titi can remain in Canada pending the federal court’s decision. As it all unfolds, Anna says she just wants to stay in Canada and make a life for herself and Titi. “I want to get my sanity back and go back to my normal life. I want to be able to take care of my daughter and live my life in Canada. I want to be given the opportunity to be able to contribute more.” Source: https://afrotimesnews.com/2022/06/09/icymi-ottawa-woman-says-her-daughter-will-be-harmed-if-theyre-sent-back-to-nigeria-but-canada-is-deporting-them-anyway/
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This week, 37-year Nigerian Mom, Vivian Olumide dropped to her knees in her workplace, cried out in a voice tinged with pain of the past and joy of the present, and praised God for all to hear. Last November, on the day before her actual birthday, Hamilton, Ontario resident Vivian and her 11- year-old son Kelvin were ordered by the Canada Border Service Agency to be out of Canada before Jan. 4, 2022. Read previous story here: https://afrotimesnews.com/category/immigration/ Six years earlier, they had arrived in Toronto for a vacation, along with Vivian’s then-husband, who is also Kelvin’s father. She said that when the husband returned to Nigeria, he told her not to follow him, but then later demanded Kelvin return to him. Vivian claimed refugee status together with her only child, but their subsequent application to remain in the country as refugees was denied, as was their appeal. The first order for them to leave Canada was issued in 2017. In 2021 they applied to remain on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, but were again denied. What they had going for them were friends in Hamilton who waged a campaign to help. A crowdfunding effort raised $19,800 toward legal fees, and social media posts trumpeted their cause. With time running out, a prayer vigil in their honour was held at the church. And then, before Christmas, their lawyer Lorne Waldman successfully appealed the denial of the humanitarian application with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. The deportation order was withdrawn. The appeal refocused their case, emphasizing that it was in Kelvin’s best interests to remain in Canada. He has flourished in Hamilton, where he sings in a choir, plays piano, excels in school, and has made close friends. But while their case for obtaining permanent resident status looked strong, official approval dragged on for the next five months. Wearing her scrubs, Vivian, a Personal Support Worker was on a break when she checked her phone. There was an email from an immigration official. Oh no, she thought. What now? The email was vanilla in tone. But it included a link to a portal to create Canadian permanent resident cards for her and Kelvin. Permanent resident. “I just started screaming,” she said “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. One of the ladies asked me: ‘are you OK?’ I said yes, I have good news, my PR was approved! I knelt in the hallway, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, but I calmed myself down ... I felt like I walked through fire to get to this point. I said, God is real, and thank you, Jesus.” She told Kelvin the news after school. In recent months she has been attending a women’s discussion group. She said it has helped her learn to forgive herself, for mistakes she has made, as well as those who have hurt her, including her ex-husband. “I forgive him,” she said. “That chapter has been closed ... Everything feels settled.” Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CetZYnwr9DH/
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Goodluck Nwauzor fled Boko Haram militants in Nigeria only to end up cleaning showers for $1 a day while housed at one of the United States’ largest immigrant detention facilities. Goodluck Nwauzor and other detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center were paid a $1 per day regardless of how many hours they worked in various cooking, cleaning, laundry and maintenance roles, if they were paid at all; some detainees were paid with candy or other snacks, according to court records. Now his testimony has helped convince a federal jury that GEO Group, which runs the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., violated the state’s minimum wage laws. “I feel so great, and I thank almighty God, who made it possible,” Nwauzor told The Washington Post. “I really appreciate the jury’s decision.” The decision on Friday means Nwauzor and other detainees will receive individual awards ranging from $7 for a single day worked, to more than $30,000 in the instance of a detainee who worked almost 700 days, according to Adam J. Berger of the Seattle-based Schroeter Goldmark & Benderorthat, the law firm representing Nwauzor and the other detainees. “Before I came to America in 2016, I was a very good business guy,” Nwauzor said. “I left Nigeria because my life was at risk.” He traveled to Central America and made his way to Mexico before presenting himself at a port of entry in California and was eventually moved to detention center in Tacoma. There, he signed up for the work program in hopes of earning money to send home, or buy items from the commissary, where everyday necessities tend to be at least twice the cost as in a grocery store. For part of his eight-month detention, he was tasked with cleaning a “stinking” five-stall shower facility used by 50 to 60 men each day, disinfecting the walls and clearing the drains. “At the end of the day, I got one dollar,” he said. He was unsure of his options and described those in the program as feeling powerless and like they were treated like “animals” or worse. He said most of the guards assumed the detainees in custody were criminals. “My friends said, ‘Goodluck, don’t go, don’t go!’ But I have to do it,” he said of his decision to turn to the court system. “I have to speak up. I can’t stay silent.” Nwauzor’s attorneys called the jury’s award “precedent-setting,” Source: https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/photos/a.119381757440035/126067163438161/
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Highlandgee: |
Highlandgee: |
justwise:Thank you sir! |
ednut1:It takes nothing away if Nigeria is mentioned. You are a Nigerian, I am a Nigerian, he is a Nigerian, this is a Nigerian forum. We need to stop deceiving ourselves with sentiments, as a people. |
A Canada-based Nigerian doctor, Dr. Ayokunle Fagbemigun billed for tens of thousands of tests authorities say he never performed, and subjected other patients to scores of unnecessary procedures, investigation has found. Fagbemigun was among the top billers in Ontario for several procedures at his second-floor office in North Etobicoke, but never actually acquired the materials to perform many of them, a disciplinary decision says. The doctor also administered to patients several tests they didn’t need, didn’t have documents to back up his decisions to provide them and couldn’t explain why he was drug-testing patients as young as nine years old, and offering another patient eight pregnancy tests in a year, even though she was not sexually active said the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal in a decision issued in March. “He did this for his own financial gain, at the cost of his patients’ care and the public health care system. He intentionally received many thousands of dollars to which he was not entitled,” the decision read. Reached at his office in Etobicoke, Dr. Fagbemigun opened the door, and then waved away a reporter. His secretary, in a phone call, confirmed the doctor wasn’t interested in talking to the press. Investigators with Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons descended on his office in 2018, taking photographs and sweeping up hard drives, one of several judgments in the case says. Of 2,385 pregnancy tests he claimed to have performed, he only bought enough materials for 225, leaving 2,160 unaccounted for. Of 6,085 rapid strep tests he claimed to have performed, he bought enough materials for 125, leaving 5,960 unaccounted for. He claimed to have performed 10,016 drug tests, but only bought materials enough for 75. In all, authorities found he billed 42,085 procedures he could not have performed, the decision says. An analysis of the billings showed that the total amount of tax dollars that were paid that corresponded to the procedures is between $270,000 and $410,000. Source: https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/photos/pcb.125286330182911/125286246849586/
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Keep abreast of the latest news and happenings in/around the Nigerian community abroad Read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/
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Keep abreast of the latest news and happenings in/around the Nigerian community abroad Read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/
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Read the latest news and happenings in/around the Nigerian community abroad Read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/
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Keep abreast of the latest news and happenings in/around the Nigerian community abroad Read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/
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Legendoo: |
Keep abreast of the latest news and happenings in/around the Nigerian community abroad Read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/
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ahnie: |
ahnie: ![]() |
After over 10 years in Canada, a Nigerian man, Alpha Ndamati is resigned to giving up the immigration process and is now actively trying to get deported. Problem is -he cannot. After years of red tape trying to become a permanent resident, the Nigerian man has been asking to leave the country and go home. "I'm left dumbfounded," he said. "I don't wish this situation for my worst enemy." His bags are packed, and he's telling his story in hopes that no one else has to repeat his experience. Ndamati says he can't afford a ticket home himself, so he's trying to get a removal order issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or the Canada Border Services Agency, forcing him to go. Years of trying to stay When he graduated from Dalhousie University in 2014, he was hopeful that he could find his way into permanent residency within the three years before his post-graduate work permit expired. He says we wanted to move to the Northwest Territories of Canada (N.W.T.) for a long time. When he saw online what appeared to be a seemingly straightforward immigration process with the territory's nominee program, he was sold. In June 2016, he got a job working at Corothers Home Hardware, and after six months of employment they agreed to help him apply for the territory's employer-driven nominee program. But the employer failed to meet all the requirements and the application was denied, forcing Ndamati through more hoops. Despite help from a local law firm, and losing $2,000 to a dubious consultant he met through church, his last work visa expired in September 2019. He has reached out to MLAs for advice, as well as the federal government, and has been in touch with the Nigerian embassy in Ottawa. He says he has twice reached out to his Member of Parliament (MP's) office to no avail. He gave up on the visa application process, feeling it was hopeless, and stopped working altogether out of fears that he would be committing a crime and get deported. But now all of his savings have dried up, and not wanting to go through the process again, he is asking Canada to send him back. "This has been over 10 years. I'm not supposed to be in this position if I've done everything outlined that I should do." No direction on how to stay, or how to leave. A while ago he says he called the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), asking them how he could start the process of being deported. He says the agency told him that leaving the N.W.T. was under the RCMP's jurisdiction. So, a couple of weeks later, he says he went to Yellowknife's RCMP detachment to get sent out of the country, only to be told that it was the responsibility of the CBSA. Separately, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said that the border services agency is responsible for immigration enforcement. The rigmarole and failure to take responsibility for his deportation has been so frustrating for Ndamati. He is really looking forward to putting years of confusion behind him and just hopes it doesn't happen to anyone else. "I don't understand. If you advertise for me to come in, and I come in, and you push me out like this." Source: https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/photos/a.119381757440035/124943966883814/
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It is still an achievement. There are many American superstars who don't have the privilege of using that iconic studio. |
Nigerian music star, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, has grabbed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use late musical great Michael Jackson’s studio in America. Wizkid and his entourage paid a visit to the studio in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, where he is said to be recording a song for his new album, More Love, Less Ego. A viral social media video depicts the time curators at the studio were discussing Wizkid recording at the exact moment the clip was recorded. Without much hesitation, ecstatic fans have started celebrating Big Wiz’s gift of bragging rights. Source: Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/photos/a.119381757440035/124657510245793/
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Newphiligeek123: |
Satguru: |
A US-based Nigerian Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Prof. Adetunji Alabi has likened Nigerians to some women. Prof. Alabi’s made this assertion in reaction to the recent adoption of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the presidential flag-bearer of the APC and much earlier, of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the flagbearer of the PDP. “Many Nigerians recognize that the country needs a departure from these recycled, old, no-good kleptomaniac leaders yet you find that there is an illogical, stupid, if you will, tendency to keep choosing these kinds of people repeatedly” “Just like some women (no puns intended), they can’t help themselves. They don’t know what they want. The bad guy syndrome. Women who choose jerks over respectable men over and again and yet come around and cry about how they have suffered and have been maltreated……and yet they repeat the whole cycle. It’s not a mistake; it is psychological” And as with the Stockholm syndrome, some women will rather choose to remain with a rapist or an abuser rather than be liberated" Prof. Alabi who stated that he is non-partisan also said his assertion should not be seen as an insult to Nigerians or women who he said are intelligent. “Nigerians are very intelligent people, but there’s just an incomprehensible psychological blockage that needs to be broken” He stated that he has a lot of family members and friends in Nigeria and wishes the country nothing but the best. He added “hopefully, there would come a time when Nigerians would become more rational and decide what is truly best for them. Until then, they can only enjoy what they have chosen but should quit complaining” Source: https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper/photos/a.119381757440035/124615066916704/
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oloshun: |
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For the latest news from the Nigerians-in-Diaspora community, read the Afrotimes Newspaper https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper
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For more news about Nigerians and Africans abroad, visit Afrotimes Newspaper: https://www.facebook.com/AfrotimesNewspaper
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