A Nigerian man recently deported from the United States has revealed he is stranded in Togo after Ghanaian officials allegedly forced him and five others across the border without warning.
Speaking to the BBC under anonymity for safety reasons, he said they were initially told they would be moved from a military camp in Ghana to better accommodation. Instead, they were covertly transported into Togo.
“They did not take us through the main border. They took us through the back door, paid the police there, and dropped us in Togo,” he recounted.
The group, which includes three other Nigerians and a Liberian, managed to check into a hotel in Lomé, the Togolese capital.
Without personal documents, they now rely on hotel staff to collect money from relatives abroad to cover their expenses.
“We’re struggling to survive in Togo without any documentation. None of us has family here.
“We’re just stuck in a hotel, trying to hold on until our lawyers can intervene,” he said.
The man described harsh conditions at the Ghanaian military camp, where he and others demanded better water, healthcare, and medication.
Officials later told them they were being relocated to a hotel, but instead drove them to the border and abandoned them in Togo.
The language barrier in French-speaking Togo has further compounded their plight, as most of them speak only English.
Sharing his personal distress, he said: “I have a house in the US where my kids live.
“How am I supposed to pay the mortgage? My children can’t see me, and it’s just so stressful.”
The deportee, a member of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, fears returning to Nigeria could lead to arrest or torture.
He added that he was under a US court protection order that should have prevented his deportation, but the US authorities provided no explanation for removing him.
He was part of a group of West Africans — including nationals of Liberia, Togo, and The Gambia — deported to Ghana last month after being flown out of the US in shackles from detention facilities.
Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the government accepted the deportees out of “pan-African empathy” and received no financial benefit.
However, opposition lawmakers have demanded a suspension of the agreement with the US until parliament ratifies it, even as the government prepares to accept another 40 deportees.
Lawyers representing the group have launched legal action against both the US and Ghana, arguing that their rights were violated.
