Tension is brewing between Ghana, Nigeria, and the United States following reports that a group of deportees from America has dragged the Ghanaian government to court over what they describe as unlawful detention.
According to the BBC, 14 deportees, including Nigerians and Gambians, were flown from the United States to Ghana last week. However, 11 of them, through their lawyer Oliver-Barker Vormawor, are challenging their detention at a military facility in Accra, insisting that they had broken no Ghanaian law and should never have been held against their will. Vormawor described the detention as “illegal,” stressing that the Ghanaian authorities must present them in court and justify their actions.
The controversy deepened on Friday when five of the deportees, made up of three Nigerians and two Gambians, filed a separate lawsuit in Washington, D.C. against the U.S. government. They argued that their deportation was unlawful, claiming it violated rulings made by U.S. immigration judges as well as American immigration law.
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The case has sparked a storm of debate across West Africa, with many questioning why the deportees were sent to Ghana instead of their respective countries of origin. The lawsuits now put pressure on both Accra and Washington to explain the circumstances behind the transfers.
This latest twist follows Ghana’s decision last week to accept 14 U.S. deportees, a move that has now snowballed into a diplomatic and legal standoff. Observers say the outcome of these lawsuits could set a major precedent for how deportation cases are handled in the region, especially when it involves multiple countries and contested legal grounds.
