A Nigerian woman who wishes to be identified simply as U.O has cried out and abandoned hopes of returning home after news of her lesbian partner’s arrest was related to her.
The Nigerian lesbian who applied for refugee protection in Canada noted that Nigerians want her dead seeing as the country’s laws frowns sternly upon homosexuality and same sex marriage.
The 32-year-old woman who has been in Winnipeg for 3 months expressed her fears of returning home to face 14 years imprisonment to the refugee protection division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada on Thursday while several supporters from Winnipeg’s LGBTO community waited outside.
U.O. noted that the supporters from the LGBTO community are her only family as her original family had abandoned her. She said: “Nobody there wants me. They want me dead,”. She further disclosed that she’ll be lynched should she ever step foot6 in Nigeria again.
“So, I don’t think they deserve me,” she added that she’s willing to start over “and find a new love” in the country.
According to Free Press, U.O who was an outreach worker at a non-governmental organization in Nigeria began her refugee protection journey in May when she arrived in Canada for a HIV/AIDS conference in Winnipeg
Following her arrival in Canada, she found out her girlfriend whom she described as her first love from university had been arrested, made to confess their secret relationship and jailed.
She further revealed that her husband had reported her affair to her employer.
Buried in her woes, a fellow conference attendee had advised her to seek refuge in the country as she had a legitimate refugee claim.
U.O’s fate now lies in the hands of an appointed adjudicator who has ruled that she needed more time to hear the case and subsequently has adjourned the continuance till August 22.
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