Justice Yvan Roy of the Federal Court of Canada, Ottawa, denied Iyanbe Eriator, a former corporal of the Nigeria Police Force, permanent residency in Canada on the grounds of his association with the Force, which he accused of being corrupt.
Having been denied permanent residency by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Mr Eriator proceeded to court to seek judicial redress.
The judge said the Nigerian police had a policy requirement for officers to rape, maim, torture, enslave, disappear and murder Nigerians, adding all of these were in violation of the Rome Statute on crimes against humanity.
“Mr Eriator, as a member of the police force, was complicit in those crimes because he could not have been unaware of the repeated and systematic acts of violence and torture,” the Canadian judge stated. “The fact that he remained within the Force, and because of his position, he was said by the Minister as having made a significant contribution to the crimes.”
Mr Eriator, however, denied the allegations, saying he was only a police officer and did not participate in the criminal activities of the force.
In his ruling, the judge stated that Mr Eriator was inadmissible to Canada due to his previous ties to the Nigerian police.
Mr Eriator entered Canada illegally through the land borders from the U.S. in October 2017. He voluntarily joined the Nigerian police in June 2009 and rose to the position of corporal.
The ex-corporal was also assigned to checkpoints during two past elections in Nigeria, including the 2015 presidential election. He was also assigned to the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ikeja for a period before leaving the force in 2016.
Mr Eriator’s case added to the growing list of Nigeria’s ex-police officers who had been denied permanent stay in Canada over their involvement or association with the police’s crime-related activities.
In 2021, Judge Sébastien Grammond denied asylum to a former SARS operative, Olushola Popoola, on the grounds of his association with the brutal unit and the police force.
Another former police officer, Charles Ukoniwe, could not get asylum in Canada after Judge Patrick Gleeson in Ottawa threw away his review request over his association with the notorious MOPOL unit of the Nigerian police.
Mr Gleeson held that any Nigerian who willingly joined the Nigerian police would be guilty by association before the Canadian judicial system and the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, notwithstanding whether or not the person committed gruesome crimes often associated with the security agency.
