A Nigerian knifeman who was jailed for threatening a British mother with a blade in front of her child has won a human rights case to stay in the UK.
Olajide Shinaba, 32, was taken in off the streets by the British woman, but after telling her he was leaving, he barged back in and pulled a knife out and lunged at her – while her young daughter watched on. The migrant claimed that if the woman, who was his friend, had been a man, he would have stabbed her. He was later jailed for 11 months.
Upon his release, he married a British woman in an ‘Islamic ceremony’, and he has two children with her.
The Home Office listed Shinaba for deportation back to his home country, however he has now successfully appealed.
An immigration judge allowed his appeal on human rights ground due to the ‘significant obstacles of reintegration’ he would face in Nigeria.
Shinaba is a Nigerian citizen who has lived in the UK since June 2003.
He was granted a residence card in July 2003 but this was revoked in January 2006. However, he was granted discretionary leave to remain in the UK in 2011.
After that expired, he made an application for indefinite leave to remain, yet while this was being considered, he committed an offence of affray in July 2018.
Having pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to eleven months in prison in December 2018.
It was heard that he had been friends with the victim, as she had taken him in when he was homeless.
After later saying that he was leaving, he returned two days later and ‘barged into the address’ before an argument broke out.
He then pulled out a knife and lunged at her stomach – all in front of her daughter.
He then said that if she had been a man, he would have stabbed her. It was accepted that he did not intend to stab her but just to scare her in a ‘moment of madness’.
In December 2018 the Home Office decided to deport Shinaba due to his conviction and his appeal was rejected due to it being ‘conducive to the public good’.
He later blamed an incident which left him with a fractured skull in November 2008 for his actions – as it left him slow at processing information.
However, the tribunal found that he had achieved GCSEs and had applied to go to university in the UK.
In August 2021, he married a British partner in an Islamic ceremony and had two children with her – born in June 2022 and November 2023. He has a third daughter with a previous partner.
It was found that he now has a ‘genuine and subsisting’ parental relationship and that his wife is pregnant again.
Having initially had his human rights claim rejected by the Home Office, he successfully appealed it only for the Home Office to launch a counter appeal and that decision was set aside.
However he has now had his subsequent appeal allowed on human rights grounds in the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
Upper Tribunal Judge Luke Bulpitt said: “Overall therefore I find that [Shinaba] has during his twenty two years of residence in the United Kingdom established a strong private life which involves relationships with his mother, father, step-father and siblings.
“Having developed and been educated in London [Shinaba] has become familiar with and participated in the customs, language and practices of London life, through which he has a sense of belonging in the city which was part of his formation.
“I also find that he has, since his release from prison and while waiting for the [Home Office] to make a decision about his application for indefinite leave to remain, formed a family life.
“[Shinaba] left Nigeria when he was ten years old and only returned once the following year, aged eleven.
“He has no adult understanding of how life in that country is carried on, no experience of work in the country and no experience of obtaining accommodation or state support.
“On the face of it, as a returnee who left Nigeria as a child and who has not returned since the age of eleven [Shinaba] cannot reasonably be regarded as an insider in Nigeria.
“The appellant is still young, physically fit and has retained some connection to Nigerian culture.
“I conclude that he would face very significant obstacles to integration there as a result of his lack of any adult experience of the country, his lack of awareness of the day to day life there and the limitations on his capacity to adapt and establish himself as a result of the traumatic injury he suffered at the age of 15.”