Pamela Izevbekhai, the Nigerian woman who claims she fled from Lagos after her husband’s family attempted to perform genital mutilation on her daughters, has been told to present herself to gardai for deportation on August 12.
Alan Shatter, the justice minister, has instructed his officials to write to Izevbekhai about her residency status in Ireland, following the rejection by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of her challenge against deportation.
The ECHR found Izevbekhai and her husband were financially and socially privileged in Nigeria, with a villa, three cars and home help. It heard that documents used by Izevbekhai to advance her case in court were forgeries.
Izevbekhai is now a Pentecostal pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a Nigerian-based ministry. She has claimed she fled Nigeria to prevent female circumcision being performed on her two daughters, Naomi and Jemima, after a third child, Elizabeth, died following the procedure in 1994.
Her fight to stay in Ireland was initially supported by celebrities, human-rights groups and politicians. One of her most prominent supporters was Shatter, as an opposition TD, who asked that Izevbekhai be permitted to stay in Ireland on humanitarian grounds.
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Her supporters have included Mary Robinson, the former president, and Roddy Doyle, the Booker prize-winning author. She also had the backing of the Fine Gael party.
Izevbekhai has said she paid criminals to smuggle her to Ireland via Holland in 2005, but gardai suspect she travelled to Britain on a holiday visa before arriving in Ireland to claim political asylum. This is based on the British government having given Izevbekhai, her husband Tony and their two daughters a multi-visit visa in June 2004. The two-year visa was issued by the British embassy in Lagos and allowed the family to travel to and from Britain for holidays.
When a deportation order was signed in 2005, she went into hiding to avoid arrest and her daughters were taken into care by the Health Service Executive. Izevbekhai was later arrested, but then released and given leave to apply for a judicial review. She eventually brought a case at the Supreme Court, which cost the state hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
Her credibility was questioned in 2009 after the Department of Justice asked the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) to investigate the evidence she had used. Documents she had used were found to be fake. They included a supposed affidavit from Joseph Unokanjo, an obstetrician who purportedly treated Elizabeth before she died. When interviewed by gardai, Unokanjo claimed Izevbekhai had never given birth to a baby called Elizabeth, and provided the investigation team with copies of her medical records which suggested that Naomi was her first-born child.
Izevbekhai later claimed she only learnt the documents were fake when her husband, who is living in Nigeria, admitted obtaining them from a fraudster. She claimed he was forced to obtain the fake documents because Unokanjo had refused to supply paperwork without a substantial payment.
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She resubmitted a second batch of documents to the Supreme court, which were also found to be forgeries. Among them was a death certificate from the Nigerian National Population Commission, “confirming” the dates of Elizabeth’s birth and death.
Izevbekhai declined to comment when contacted by The Sunday Times last week.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said: “The minister has directed his department to communicate with Pamela Izevbekhai following the decision from the ECHR. He is disappointed to note she misled the department, the Irish courts, the ECHR and those who publicly expressed concern about her alleged circumstances.”