Citation: 2020 RLLR 161
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: December 17, 2020
Panel: Zhanna Perhan
Counsel for the Claimant(s): Johnson Babalola
Country: Nigeria
RPD Number: TB9-25939
Associated RPD Number(s): TB9-26027, TB9-25982, TB-26025, TB9-26026, TB9-26024
ATIP Number: A-2022-00210
ATIP Pages: 000147-000151
DECISION
[1] MEMBER: This is a decision for XXXX XXXX XXXX, file number TB9-25939, the principal claimant, his wife, the associate claimant, and their children the minor claimants.
[2] I’ve had an opportunity to consider your testimony, examine the evidence before me, and I’m ready to render my decision orally. The claims were heard jointly in accordance with Rule 55. The principal claimant was appointed designated representative for the minor claimants.
[3] You claim to be citizens of Nigeria save your daughter XXXX, the minor claimant, who is claiming to be a citizen of the U.S. You’re claiming refugee protection pursuant to Section 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
[4] I find that all the claimants but the minor XXXX XXXX who is the U.S. citizen, are Convention refugees, as you have established that you face a serious possibility of persecution based on a Convention ground. For the principal claimant it is religion and for the associated minor claimants it is a particular social group as family members. With respect to your United States born daughter XXXX, however, there were no allegations raised with respect to persecution in the United States. I find that she is not a Convention refugee nor a person in need of protection. The reasons are as follows.
[5] The allegations of your claim can be found in the principal claimant’s original and updated basis of claim forms in Exhibit 2 and 8. In summary, you, the principal claimant, allege persecution on the grounds of religion who as a Christian is unwilling to adhere to the traditionalist approaches of Ogboni Tubalasai (phonetic) cult which your family on your father’s side has practiced for many generations. You as the eldest son were first persuaded and then threatened and attacked alongside your family members to take up the chieftaincy title and continue the family tradition. The associated minor claimants, save the youngest U.S. born one, fear your family and the Ogboni cult as well, as they were threatened and attacked along with you as your family members. Your daughter who has a U.S. citizenship will be safe in the United States as no allegations were raised against it.
[6] I find that your identities as nationals of Nigeria and for the minor claimant XXXX as a citizen of the U.S. have been established on a balance of probabilities through your testimony and through the supporting documents found in Exhibit 1. I find no reason to doubt the authenticity of those documents.
[7] In terms of your general credibility, the principal and associate claimant you both testified today, I have found you to be credible witnesses. There were no relevant inconsistencies in your testimony or contradictions between your testimony and the other evidence before me. I also find that there were no embellishments made within your testimony. All the minor inconsistencies were explained either by you or in the submissions by your counsel. Therefore, I accept what you have alleged in support of your claim, including the following.
[8] The principal claimant you were born to a family of an Ogboni chief. The traditionalist religion was a part of your father’s family for generations. Your mother and your siblings were not supporting the secretive traditionalist cult and you all were practicing Christianity. At his death bed back in 2013 your father confided in you and warned you against joining the Ogboni Tubalasai cult. You, the principal claimant, disobeyed the other Ogboni members and buried your father at your family’s burial plot which made the Ogboni very angry. In addition, during the meeting following your father’s death where you and your siblings were summoned you were given instructions on joining the cult to continue your father’s work as a chief. You declined, and although you were threatened you were given a year to consider, prepare, and respond positively.
[9] At the one year anniversary of your after’s death you and your family returned to the village and (inaudible) the eiders of the Ogboni cult. You did not seeing their demands were still up but they met you with hostility and at night attacked you and your family at your father’s house. They wanted to force you to swear the oath but you were saved by your friends. You left the village right away, travelled back to Lagos, and the following day went to report the attack to the police, who did not provide any protection as it was called a family issue. In addition, you had to seek medical attention for one of your children as he was injured during the attack.
[10] During 2014-2017 the position was to be filled. You were threatened regularly as the position of the XXXX XXXX was to be filled only by you, the principal claimant. The Ogboni members were looking for you for all these years. They called you regularly. They threatened you regularly. They were able to locate you in XXXX 2017 as they came to your residence in Lagos and tried to persuade you to take up the chieftaincy. Because you refused you feared that you could be attacked again.
[11] You took your family to your mother’s house in Ogun State but you couldn’t stay there long. For the safety of your wife and children you moved them to your wife’s sister’s house in Lagos where they stayed until you were ready to leave Nigeria. You left Nigeria in XXXX 2018 with your family and you stayed in the U.S. until XXXX XXXX2019, came to Canada in XXXX 2019 to claim asylum here.
[12] In support of your claim you provided documents in Exhibits 6 through 11, including affidavits from your friends, mother, sister, your wife’s sister, a letter from Ogboni chief which dates back to 2013, death certificates of your father and your elder brother, and other documents. I was notable to give some of these documents full weight as there were some issues on the face of the document, in particular the affidavits from your mother and your sister, which did not coincide with the information in the NDP, in particular Item 9.2. In his submissions your counsel spoke on the issues with the documents that I had. The counsel turned my attention to the cultural differences between Canada and Nigeria. In addition, he presented new evidence that apparently is not yet present in the NDP about the Nigerian Bar Association. In particular, he gave the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from 2015 which says that not having the MBA does not necessarily invalidate the document.
[13] Having considered all the facts and submissions of your counsel, I was able to give full weight to all the documents before me, as they corroborate your written and oral testimony. I find on a balance of probabilities that you are credible witnesses. I am therefore satisfied that you have established your subjective fear.
[14] The overall objective evidence supports your claims for Convention refugee protection. The national documentation package for Nigeria November 30th 2020 found in Exhibit 3 and the country conditions evidence submitted by your counsel in particular in Exhibits 6, 7, and 8, the NDP characterizes the Ogboni cult as a secret society or secret cult or even a criminal organization. It operates predominately in the Yoruba communities in the southwest according to the NDP Item 1.3. Although it is considered to be in decline the organization still has the capacity to locate former members anywhere in the country. According to the NDP membership though is generally voluntarily but not always especially for individuals with a close history of or personal knowledge about the cult. This is Item 1.13. Revealing information on Ogboni rituals can put individuals’ life at risk in the same item.
[15] The principal claimant’s experiences with the cult are consistent with this evidence. Although, principal claimant, you were nota member of the cult, I find that you were closely connected to the cult through your late father and that you knew enough about their rituals and they were seeking to make you a XXXX XXXX of the cult and you refused to become a chief and that put your life at risk.
[16] In addition to this information in the NDP, you also submitted some articles to the RPD in Exhibit 6 about incidents involving the Ogboni cult in Lagos State in particular where Ogboni threatened and killed those who refused the ritual. In his submissions your counsel also pointed out to the same Exhibit 6 and turned my attention that there is evidence that Ogboni operates not only inside but outside Nigeria and they have presence all over Africa.
[17] Overall the objective country condition evidence supports the conclusion that you the principal and the associate claimant and your children, save your daughter the U.S. citizen, have an objective basis for your claim.
[18] In order to establish that you are Convention refugees you must also prove that you do not have state protection and you cannot be adequately protected by the Nigerian police if you return to Nigeria. Based on both your evidence and on the evidence in the NDP I find that you will not have adequate state protection in Nigeria.
[19] Principal claimant, you stated in your narrative and in your testimony that you tried to turn to police for protection but you did not receive any. The police did not want to interfere into what they believed was a family matter. The NDP addresses this issue of police protection for people who refuse to participate in ritual practices, in particular Item 10.8. It states that although protection ought to be available according to the constitution of Nigeria and legislation these laws are not always implemented in practice and that people who refuse ritual practices cannot necessarily rely on police to protect them. Officers are often part of the committee practicing the traditions and sympathetic to those communities and bribes may be required to secure some level of protection.
[20] Taking all of this evidence into account I find there is clear and convincing evidence before me that you the claimants would not have adequate state protection against your agents of persecution in Nigeria.
[21] With regards to possible viable internal flight alternative in Nigeria, there is evidence, which I already quoted, in the NDP that if the Ogboni cult desires to and is able to locate people it targets them anywhere in Nigeria. Given the attacks and the threats that you the principal claimant have already faced in Nigeria I find that you and your family are a target of this cult.
[22] You testified that anywhere you and your family relocate in Nigeria you will have to restart your business to provide financially for your family. For that purpose you will need to advertise, you will need social media, telephone. Given that Ogboni presence is evident in Nigeria they will be able to locate you through media, through advertising, on a balance of probabilities. I also find it is more likely than not that the Ogboni have access to mobile phones, to the internet, and they can use these tools to find people throughout the country.
[23] Ali of these evidence and argument, including the NDP evidence about the cult, the articles submitted in Exhibit 6, the argument about the advertising, use of social media to locate people, and the NDP evidence about the prevalence of use of mobile phone in Nigeria as also submitted in Exhibit 6, leads me to conclude that you, the claimants, do not have an IFA in Nigeria and you face a serious possibility of persecution anywhere you go in Nigeria.
[24] So having considered all of the evidence, I find there is a serious possibility that you, the principal and associate claimant, and your children, the minor claimants, would face persecution in Nigeria pursuant to Section 96 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act so I find you to be Convention refugees. Your claims are therefore accepted.
[25] As to your daughter XXXX XXXX the U.S. citizen and the minor claimant, her claim is denied for Section 96 and 97.
———- REASONS CONCLUDED ———-