Forged papers damaged public support for mother's campaign

BACKGROUND:IT HAS been a rollercoaster ride for Pamela Izevbekhai who, after living in Sligo for 6½ years, left that city in the dead of night on Monday, accompanied by a detective and the two daughters who have been at the centre of one of the most protracted and controversial legal battles to come before the Irish courts.

Her friends continued to insist her children were still in danger, while her detractors wished good riddance to a woman whom they accused of fraud and of abusing the Irish legal system.

Pamela Izevbekhai’s case became a cause celebre for those who are uneasy about how the Irish State treats asylum seekers and those who admired her for putting the spotlight on the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation. Izevbekhai’s case was that her first-born daughter, Elizabeth, died aged 17 months from blood loss after Izevbekhai bowed to pressure from her in-laws and allowed the child to be subjected to mutilation. She said she could not risk them doing the same to her other children.

It was a campaign punctuated by highs and lows. On March 17th, 2008, her daughters led the St Patrick’s Day parade in Sligo, winning the hearts of those who lined the streets. The next day, they and their mother were summoned to the Garda National Immigration Bureau in Dublin, where they were ordered to present themselves for deportation.

Several times deportation seemed imminent but until yesterday there always seemed to be another legal option to be explored. There were umpteen High Court appearances, an appeal to the Supreme Court, and finally the case was referred to the European Court of Human Rights, which found there had been no violation of the family’s rights and that they had the means to protect the girls in Nigeria. Throughout the campaign, many in Sligo rallied to their cause, but the mood changed after revelations about forged documents emerged in 2009. Some of those who had been publicly supportive felt wrong-footed, if not betrayed.

Izevbekhai’s legal team stood down after a Nigerian doctor said he had not, contrary to documents used in the case, delivered a baby called Elizabeth Izevbekhai and that he had never treated this child for blood loss following genital mutilation. Supporters pointed out that, even then, this doctor was seeking payments from the media for interviews, but they had to admit Izevbekhai’s credibility had been harmed.

Supporters insisted that documents are hard to access in Nigeria and that any mother would do the same to protect her children. But the campaign never recovered momentum.

Yesterday the mayor of Sligo, Cllr Rosaleen O’Grady, refused to comment. Fine Gael TD John Perry, who had welcomed Izevbekhai to Leinster House with party colleagues Alan Shatter and Denis Naughten in December 2008, also refused to comment.

Supporters said that since the European court ruling, Izevbekhai had been expecting yesterday’s development. She had been neither scared nor depressed.

“She was just tired of being pursued by the Irish State,” said one friend.