Nigerian wants son to stay in Ireland

The Nigerian woman deported last week without her Irish child does not want her son sent to her in Nigeria.

Ms Angel Adubu (23), speaking to The Irish Times from Lagos yesterday, said she was not given an opportunity to contact the neighbour looking after him when taken into custody by the Garda National Immigration Bureau last Thursday. The bureau denies this.

Ms Adubu was one of 25 people deported to Nigeria on a specially chartered aircraft last Thursday. Three children were also on the flight. Her case has sparked controversy as she was deported without her Irish-born son, Somtom, aged 19 months.

She said yesterday she could not sleep or eat such was her concern for her son. Though left initially with a neighbour, he is now being cared for by two women friends in a flat in central Dublin.

When visited by The Irish Times yesterday, he seemed in reasonable spirits. Dressed in short beige cords and an orange T-shirt, he was jumping around the flat with the daughters - aged one year and three - of the two women. The women, who did not want to be named, said they were "very worried about what is going to happen".

"We are afraid we might get into trouble for doing this. But Angel is very particular that we must not give him up to go into State care."

They said they had been in contact with Ms Adubu's solicitor, Mr Cathal O'Neill.

He said yesterday that Ms Adubu would have to legally nominate one of these women as Somtom's guardian or he may be taken into care by the Northern Area Health Board.

He added that while Ms Adubu did speak to him "a couple of times" last Thursday, "it was not in circumstances where she was alone, where she could talk freely".

Ms Adubu, who arrived in Ireland in December 2002, one month before the birth of Somtum, said she had not known she was going to be deported when she set out from her home in Swords, to report to Garda immigration bureau.

"I went there about four times before and I assumed it was just to sign my name again. I didn't even have any money with me. I left my baby with a neighbour after breakfast, with just two Pampers and some baked beans for his lunch.

"When I got there, they told me I was going to go to Nigeria that night. I said I couldn't go without my baby but they wouldn't let me make a call."

This is strenuously denied by the bureau. "For her to say her phone was taken from her is totally wrong," said Det Supt Gerry Cadden. He said all deportees were allowed to keep their phones until just prior to embarkation. Ms Adubu's was taken from her earlier, however, when she was arrested in the early evening and transferred to the women's prison in Mountjoy. She was arrested as she was deemed to be "obstructing her deportation" and held there for about four hours.

Det Supt Cadden said officers "pleaded" with her to tell them where her son was. "She gave us one contact number and that was called on at least one occasion but the person who answered said they didn't know where the baby was. When we went back to Angel, she couldn't explain it."

Ms Adubu said yesterday she was "covered in bruises" by bureau officers and that she had been "held down and dragged onto the plane by about 10 men".

Det Supt Cadden said that while there was "no doubt she didn't want to go on the plane", she was not manhandled.

Ms Adubu said her son was "very attached" to her. "I don't think he will be feeling very well without me." She added that she had been in touch with the women caring for her son.

She said she left Nigeria when pregnant because she feared Somtom would be used in voodoo rituals. "He would not be safe here. I would be afraid for him."

Det Supt Cadden said the Garda immigration bureau would "do everything to reunite her with her child" if the current carers surrendered him to the authorities. His officers had "pleaded with her" to tell them where Somtom was but she refused, he added.