INTERNATIONAL DISGRACE? Canadian Government Denies Asylum To Prominent PDP Chieftain; SEE Incredible Reasons Cited
Canadian authorities have rejected the asylum request of Mosunmola Awonuga and her three children after discovering spelling errors in the documents supporting her claim, according to court filings. Ms. Awonuga, who alleged persecution by Nigeria’ s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for her affiliation with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also cited concerns about female genital mutilation for her daughters.
The Canadian immigration authorities considered the claims to be ” clearly fraudulent” due to discrepancies in the spelling of the PDP’ s name on the documents submitted. The membership card issued in 2012 had ” Peoples Democratic Party” written on it, while the stamp inside read ” People Democratic Party” without the letter ‘ s’ . Furthermore, a letter of support from the party also had the name spelled as ” Peoples’ Democratic Party” (with an apostrophe) in both the header and contents.
The court, in dismissing Ms. Awonuga’ s application for a judicial review, deemed the spelling errors as significant. The explanation that the mistake might have been due to the way the PDP made the stamp was considered weak and untenable.
Ms. Awonuga’ s counsel argued that Canadian standards should not be applied to non- Canadian documents and that errors should be anticipated in documents from a ” third world country” like Nigeria. However, the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) argued that a major political party should be able to spell its own name correctly and consistently in its documents.
