A NIGERIAN priest who was detained and put in jail, has had a stamp on his passport saying that he was refused permission to land in Ireland cancelled without prejudice. Fr John Achebe (33), a parish priest in the central Nigerian city of Onitsha, was stopped at Dublin airport on September 9th after arriving on a flight from Istanbul.
He was strip-searched and placed in Cloverhill Prison for the night before being released after the intervention of the Nigerian ambassador, Mandu Ekong-Omaghomi.
Officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau had stamped his passport with a "refusal to land" stamp which would have made it difficult for him to travel to other countries.
A deal was brokered at the bureau on Burgh Quay, Dublin, yesterday between immigration officials, Fr Achebe, his solicitor Gerry Cullen and Fr Eamon Aylward, the secretary of the Irish Missionary Union. Fr Aylward had described Fr Achebe's detention as a "humiliation beyond belief" in a letter to this newspaper last week.
The immigration bureau has also agreed to set aside the decision taken to refuse him entry to the country and Fr Achebe was given a visa to enter Ireland as of yesterday.
No reason was given for the change of mind on the part of the Garda despite several letters from Mr Cullen to the Garda National Immigration Bureau demanding clarification as to why Fr Achebe was arrested in the first place.
Last week the bureau insisted that Fr Achebe was "lawfully and appropriately refused permission".
Mr Cullen said people who were deprived of their liberty and their right to travel were entitled to an explanation as to why they were being detained, or in Fr Achebe's case, why that detention was set aside.
Fr Aylward welcomed the outcome of the case. "I would hope, with the Fr Achebe reversal, the rights of all people who have no voice would be represented and that respect and dignity is afforded to everybody entering the country."
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(Source: IT)