Not feeling safe, she decided to leave the area/country. She had a friend in Dagenham, England and went to stay with her for a brief time but on her return to Nigeria, things were still the same. She tried to come to an arrangement with her brother-in-law about the property and even involved the local Minister in trying to work out the situation with him.

However, Ronke was consistently being hounded by her in-laws to hand over her boys and her husband's property to her brother-in-law. Her religious beliefs are different to theirs and they wanted to force their beliefs onto her.

Ronke eventually decided to come to the UK again and stay with her friend in Dagenham so she obtained a visitors' visa to the UK to stay for a time.

Unfortunately this time the friend was not so kind and Ronke felt that she was treated badly, and that the friend was being influenced by her in-laws. She would not allow Ronke access to her passport, presumably so that Ronke could not go anywhere else.

Ronke claimed asylum on 7 March 2007 and her case was heard (and refused) in Belfast in June 2007. If she returns to Nigeria Ronke will be forced by her dead husband's family to marry her brother-in-law and if she refuses, her children will be taken away from her by the family. Her husband's property has already been taken by them in Ronke's absence. She is a practicing Christian and her faith would not allow her to comply with the family's wishes and marry this man.

Ronke and her family have been living in the Imperial Drive area of Belfast and attending Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church in Castlereagh Street and have become very much part of the fellowship. Ronke works on a voluntary basis in the Church's Charity Shop and sings in the Praise Group, her children attend local schools, Boys' Brigade and Junior Church and have made friends here - one of the boys has caught the attention of scouts from one of Northern Ireland's top football teams, Linfield FC. Ronke herself was also attending college on a part-time basis, integrating into the wider community here.

The Home Office say that Ronke's fear of returning home is based on a local family dispute and that although she claims to have been pressurised by her husband's family since his death in 2003, at no point did this pressure result in violence or any specific act of persecution against her. The harrassment she claims to have suffered would not breach any threshold for regarding it as serious harm and the Home Office believes it reasonable that she simply relocates to another part of Nigeria to escape the family's attentions. They also say that Nigerian law would protect widows in Ronke's situation and that her claim does not invoke a need for international protection and does not demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution.

They say that Ronke has not established a well-founded fear of persecution and does not qualify for asylum; she has not shown substantial grounds for believing that she faces a real risk of suffering serious harm on return from the UK so she does not qualify for Humanitarian Protection. They have concluded that removing this family from the UK or requiring them to leave would not be contrary to the UK's obligations under the ECHR.

We feel strongly that Ronke has a greater attachment now to Belfast than she has to Nigeria and also think the Home Office have paid little attention to the fact that she was effectively being persecuted for her Christian beliefs in Nigeria and the same would undoubtedly happen again if she was forced to return.

What you can do to help!

Immediate:
1.) Please send urgent faxes immediately to Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, Secretary of State for the Home Office asking that Ronke & children be granted protection in the UK. Please download the "model letter" RonkeJS.doc you can copy/amend/write your own version (if you do so, please remember to include the HO ref 1293538).

Fax: 020 7035 3262 (00 44 20 7035 3262 if you are faxing from outside UK)

All day Wednesday and Thursday morning:

2.) Please fax/phone/email, Conrad Clifford, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Nigeria Airways, asking that Virgin Nigeria should not facilitate Home Office enforcement policies, download the "model letter" (RonkeVN.doc) you can copy/amend/write your own version, if you do so, please remember to include the removal flight details: Virgin Nigerian Airways flight VK292, leaving Gatwick North Terminal @ 10.15 hours on Thursday 8th November.

Fax: 01293 448035 - from outside the UK + 44 1293 448035
Phone: General numbers at Virgin Nigeria @ Gatwick:
0870 403 1212 0844 412 1788
Email:  customer.relations@virginnigeria.com


Please notify the campaign of any faxes sent:
Friends of the Falode Family
Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church
45A Castlereagh Street
Belfast
BT5 4NE
 davidcraig11@hotmail.co.uk