Pressure grows for return of Nigerian student

Pressure is growing on the Minister for Justice to allow the return of a deported Nigerian student who was due to sit his Leaving Certificate in June.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said yesterday it was "hard to understand" why the deportation of Olunkunle Eluhanla could not have been postponed "for a few weeks" until he had completed his exams.

"At the very least, returning home with a certificate in his pocket would have been a boost to an intelligent young man and would have given him something of a better start in his own country.

He appealed to the authorities "to use to the full the discretionary powers they possess".

Opposition parties and the Teachers' Union of Ireland had already called yesterday on Michael McDowell to allow Mr Eluhanla to return.

About 300 supporters of Mr Eluhanla and other Nigerians who were deported last week demonstrated outside the Dáil at lunchtime. They included about 50 classmates and some teachers of the deported youth from Palmerstown Community College.

Also yesterday, Mr Eluhanla rejected Mr McDowell's description, given in the Dáil on Tuesday evening, of his case and the circumstances of his deportation.

In flat contradiction of the account provided by Mr McDowell and his officials, he said he was refused access to a lawyer while detained in Cloverhill prison and was not allowed to return home to collect his belongings before being deported.

Mr Eluhanla insisted that he was in his school uniform at the time of deportation - according to the Minister, he was wearing a tracksuit.

Asked on RTÉ's Five-Seven Live whether gardaí had told deportees on the flight that they would be available to provide assistance in Lagos for a period, he said: "They didn't give me anything."

While accepting the Minister's contention that he was 20 years of age, not 19, he insisted he didn't know where his mother was, or whether she was still in Nigeria.

"I'm just pleading with the Government now to look at my case. I don't know where to start, what to do," he said.

Fianna Fáil senator Mary O'Rourke last night urged that some way be found to allow him sit his exam but added that he should not be permitted to return here.

TCD law professor William Binchy told the demonstration that Mr McDowell had many positive qualities. However, law at its best was not about "the cold application of regulations but must be infused with humanity".

In Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, a public meeting is being held tonight in support of Nkechi Okolie and her three children, who were among those deported last week.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that nine under-18s, seven boys and two girls, were among the 35 Nigerians deported last week. The removal, carried out on an airplane chartered by the Department of Justice, cost €265,000, the Minister told the Dáil.