A Federal Court in Canada has stopped immigration agency’s planned deportation of a Nigerian mother and her son who allegedly fled Nigeria to escape rituals imposed on them by family members.
The court halted their forced removal by the Canada Border Services Agency after concluding that the Nigerian woman faced serious risks of mental health and safety to her life.
A report by THE EAGLE ONLINE cited court records which showed that Shalewa Folashade Oladipupo and her minor twin son (name withheld) fled Nigeria to avoid alleged ritual practices demanded by her husband’s family.
The Refugee Appeal Division had earlier rejected their claim for asylum, on the ground that they had the opportunity to flee to safety in another part of Nigeria, before they filed an application with the court to halt their deportation scheduled for January 29, 2026.
In Oladipupo v. Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness), 2026 CanLII 5999 (FC), suit number IMM-1106-26, the court granted a stay of removal, stopping the immigration officials a day before their planned forced removal.
“The applicants have met the legal test for a stay of their removal,” Justice Whyte Nowak decided in her 11-paragraph judgment.
Oladipupo had alleged that the rituals, which contradicted her Christian faith, were to be performed yearly on her and her twin sons, with a final ritual after the children turned 18.
The refugee claimant stated that she fled with one of her boys so that the final ritual could not be completed, adding that she feared that “a supernatural power will kill her and her sons” if the ritual should be performed and that she would face reprisals from family members if forced to return to Nigeria.
Despite those fears, an inland enforcement officer, who decided their matter last January 26, refused to defer their removal on “insufficient evidence” of active suicidal ideation and concluded the mother was fit to travel.
The court rejected that reasoning.
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Justice Nowak, who found the officer’s decision unjustified, accepted the medical evidence presented by Oladipupo, which he described as a diagnosis of “adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depression,” reports of “passive suicidal ideation.”
The judge accepted Oladipupo’s doctor’s reports claiming that the mother was “not of sound mind” and “not fit to travel.”
According to medical records presented to the court, Oladipupo’s physician, Dr. Aderinto, also warned that her client was “not mentally stable,” she suffered uncontrolled hypertension with a high risk of heart attack or stroke, and had severe spinal disease that prevented her from sitting for long periods.
Interrupting her care, the doctor cautioned, could lead to “potentially life-threatening outcomes.”
On suicide risk, the judge dismissed the immigration official’s attempt to distinguish between “active” and “passive” ideation, stating it was “trite law that risks of suicide can establish irreparable harm.”
The court further noted that immigration authorities had not put in place medical or mental health support arrangements for Oladipupo’s arrival in Nigeria, a failure that heightened the danger.
Given the close link between mother and child, Justice Nowak said, the risk extended to both applicants, adding that the harm would be “heightened by her son’s return to Nigeria without her.”
While claiming to be compelled to balance the human cost against the public interest in enforcement of the immigration law, the court ruled that the mother and son should be protected from the proposed deportation.
“The motion for a stay of the applicants’ removal is granted,” the judge ordered.
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