Fact Situation A

Refugee Protection

Facts Regarding Your Client

xxxxxxxxxxxxx (a.k.a. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx), the claimant, alleges that he is a 41-year-old citizen of Nigeria.He claims to have a well-founded fear of persecution at the hands of agents of family elders by reason of his religion and his membership in a particular social group, namely family.As well, he claims to be a person in need of protection because he would be subjected personally to a risk to his life or to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment in Nigeria.

Summary of Personal Information Form

The claimant alleges that, on xxxxxxxxx, 2016, he attended a meeting in Ilaorangun, his hometown, at the invitation of family elders who there advised him that he had been chosen by an oracle to be the next Fetish Priest to the Ilaorangun xxxxxxx shrine.He refused because ritual activities required of the holder of the position were contrary to his Christian beliefs.His father and the head of the family both warned that, because the oracle had chosen him, they could give the title to no one else and that serious harm would be visited on the town and the township if he did not comply with the wish of the oracle.The claimant returned to Lagos where he resided.

On xxxxxxxxxx, 2016, as he was returning from church to his Lagos residence, a group of Ilaorangun youth approached him and warned that he would be severely punished if he did not return to his hometown and take up the title of Fetish Priest to the shrine.On xxxxxxxxxxx, 2016, he was severely beaten by some youths from Ilaorangun who had broken into his Lagos residence. Police, to whom he reported the attack, advised that since the attackers were from Ilaorangun, they could not assist him.They suggested that he return to Ilaorangun and resolve the issue with family elders since it was a family matter.Concerned about his safety, he moved to a friend's to sleep.

However, on xxxxxxxxxxx, 2016, a group of Ilaorangun men accosted him on a Lagos street and, advising that they were acting for hometown elders, made an unsuccessful attempt to forcibly abduct him to Ilaorangun.After gaining safety in a nearby house, he asked his pastor to go to Ilaorangun and there file a police report on his behalf.The pastor did so, but to no avail.On xxxxxxxx, 2017, the claimant fled Nigeria for Canada in fear for his life.

Issues

The issues in this matter are credibility, personal, tribal and religious identity and the objective basis for a well-founded fear of persecution, including the availability of state protection and internal flight alternative.

Identity

Client claims tribal affiliation of Yoruba and that he was a practicing Christian in Nigeria based on the following factors.He can demonstrate his fluency in Yoruba by testifying in that language.He has documentary evidence of his role as parishioner in his Lagos church in the form of a letter from the pastor on church letterhead.

Also given to you are letters with date stamped envelopes to the claimant from Nigeria.Yoruba is one of the major languages in Nigeria and affidavits are done to establish date of birth in Nigeria for citizens born before a Birth registry was set up.You have an affidavit as evidence of the claimant's was having been born in Nigeria in xxxxx 1977.Your client sounds to you like he is giving credible testimony, and you think he is who he says he is and is a citizen of Nigeria.

Credibility

The client's manner of speaking seems both candid and straightforward.He easily explains minor apparent inconsistencies and his story seems internally consistent.

He can make detailed and extensive descriptions of the chieftaincy system in Ilaorangun; of the key roles of chief and fetish priests of Ilaorangun and of the rotation of the two roles through different Ilaorangun families. The client talked about the rituals required of the priest that conflicted with his Christian faith, including his description of seeing, as a boy, the priest perform a particular blood sacrifice.

He says that, in xxxxxx 2016, the key role of fetish priest of Ilaorangun xxxxxxx shrine fell to his family and that he was chosen to fulfill that role after family elders, all blood relatives, consulted with the shrine oracle.The client says that he was warned that only his death would enable family elders to appoint someone else as Fetish Priest to the shrine.The tribunal must be convinced that such warning is tantamount to a death threat and that his refusal to take up the role led to the attacks he has described.

He says that he sought state protection in Lagos; that police told him that their jurisdiction did not extend to Ilaorangun, and that they advised him that he might resolve the situation himself by settling the matter with family elders.

He claims that, given the response of Lagos police and fearful of returning to his hometown himself, he asked his pastor to file a report on his behalf with Ilaorangun police.His stated purpose in doing so, was of having police there give a stern warning to his family elders.He says his pastor indeed made the five-hour drive to Ilaorangun where he filed a report with police there and that Ilaorangun police were already conversant with the matter and sufficiently co-opted by family elders that they refused to act.Your client, through his pastor, sought but failed to gain state protection in Ilaorangun.

In summary he says that he was threatened with death; that he was physically assaulted by agents of family elders and that those elders sent men to forcibly abduct and return him to his hometown to take up the position he refused as Fetish Priest

Your source country documentary evidence shows the continued existence in Nigeria of cultism. While the documentary evidence reports that "The Nigeria Police Force itself has several layers and branches that citizens dissatisfied with investigations and actions by one branch could request and get cases transferred to other branches". Your client asserts that this was not his experience. He says that the response of the desk sergeant in Lagos made him believe that he was precluded from taking his case to a higher level in Lagos.

Letters from his cousin, a church friend and from his pastor's wife report that family elders continue to seek him.Based on the telephone conversations with his uncle and his cousin, as recently as two weeks ago, he believes that family elders continue to seek him.

The claimant twice attempted to avail himself of police protection.He did so in two different branches, Lagos and Ilaorangun.He was unsuccessful in both instances.

He says that internal flight to the city of Port Harcourt in a predominantly Christian part of southern Nigeria is not an option. He says that the influence of his family elders extends not only to the city of Ilaorangun, but also of Ilaorangun township since the shrine has an impact on that wide and large population.

Even when he went into hiding at the home of his uncle's friend in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city, which is five hours driving distance from Ilaorangun, he was found, followed and persecuted by agents of family elders.

Question is:

Determine whether the claimant has a case with merit analyzing the case according to the usual issues that are material at a refugee hearing (fear of persecution or need of protection, credibility, state protection, internal flight alternative). Examine the issues of concern that arise from the fact situation and consider the advice or counsel you would provide to the clients based on your analysis.