In this feature, a Nigerian man narrates how some partners exploit legal and immigration systems as a tool for revenge, using them to arrest and deport their spouses, VICTOR AYENI writes
When Fred Omoruyi first met Jane in Accra, Ghana, in 2019, he had no idea that their acquaintance would spiral into a nightmare—one that would push him to the brink of deportation in the United Kingdom.
The 33-year-old, a professional footballer who grew up in Benin City, Edo State, left Nigeria in 2009, shortly after his secondary school education.
After relocating to Ghana to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a footballer, Omoruyi travelled across West Africa to participate in soccer tournaments.
Through a friend named Jerry, he gained recognition among music artistes and producers in Nigeria, Ghana and beyond.
“It was during my time there that a lady called me one day,” Omoruyi recalled during an X space hosted by a social media personality, Oluomo of Derby, where he shared his story, as monitored by Saturday PUNCH.
“She told me that she got my contact from my friend. She wanted to go into music and asked me to help her get some beats. I assured her that I would get in touch with my friend who would help her, and I did that.”
About a year later, amid the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a lockdown, Omoruyi and Jane had been communicating on the phone, and they planned for her to visit him in Accra all the way from the United Kingdom where she resided.
“She said I was the first person who had done something for her freely and she would like us to be talking more. That was how the relationship started.
“She spent about two weeks with me in Accra. When she came, she was very nice and kind; and that was how I fell in love with her. She told me she would return and we would have a court wedding,” Omoruyi said.
After they eventually got married in Lagos, Nigeria, Jane returned to the UK. Omoruyi said he joined her at her destination on November 21, 2022.
Love gone sour
Barely two weeks after the new couple settled in, Omoruyi got a cleaning job in Croydon, London, England.
The zeal with which he sought to work stirred the admiration of his mother-in-law, who invited the couple to stay with them in their six-bedroom apartment in another part of London till they could afford their own property.
At that time, Omoruyi said he was juggling two jobs all through the week. However in January 2023, he claimed he noticed a change in his ex-wife’s behaviour.
“She just changed. When I asked her, ‘Baby what’s happening?’ she gave me silly excuses. I hardly stayed at home because I worked throughout the week, and sometimes, I was only off for one day due to the extra shifts I took.
“There were times she would have issues with her friends and when I got home, she’d transfer that aggression onto me. On some Sundays when I indicated I wanted to follow her mum to church, she would say, ‘It’s not mum that brought you to this country, I’m the one who brought you here.’”
The 33-year-old alleged that Jane constantly berated him, despite the intervention of his mother-in-law.
“After a while, things became worse and I had to start making audio recordings,” Omoruyi noted. “She would pick unnecessary fights and arguments with me. There were times when I was supposed to be resting at midnight after a busy day to wake up at 6am, but she’d be on the phone, talking to one prophet or pastor.”
Money troubles
Explaining how he managed his finances, Omoruyi disclosed that he was paid £2,200 from his cleaning job, and £3,200 from his second job after taxes were deducted.
Because the couple did not pay house rent, he said about £580 was spent on various bills, adding that he gave Jane “£2,000 for foodstuff and other needs. I would also send money to my mother and siblings in Nigeria.”
He recounted that one night, a friend called him to ask for a loan of £500 to purchase some things for his wife. According to him, when he was about to send the money, Jane became infuriated, which resulted in an argument.
“She stood up and started shouting that how would I dare send money to people anyhow after she brought me to this country. Everybody in the house rushed to the room to ask why she was shouting. I didn’t say anything. She kept shouting, dragging me and holding onto my shirt.
“She said that’s how I do, sending money to my useless mother and family every month and she wasn’t complaining. Though I was upset, I stood up and asked them to tell her to leave my shirt. When she did, I left the room,” Omoruyi said.
He further alleged that the next morning, he woke up to cold water poured on his head by his wife.
“At that time, the weather was cold. She told me that how could I sleep when she was not sleeping. I picked up my phone and recorded this also. Her mother begged me and I just took my shirt and left the house,” he said in a sad tone.
Omoruyi claimed to have received three separate phone calls from a Nigerian prophet who lobbied to be the “couple’s pastor”, a request which he was reluctant to fully accept.
He alleged that in two of the instances when he answered the calls and turned down the request of the prophet, he was verbally and physically assaulted by his former wife.
“When I got home that night, she was standing at the entrance. Immediately I entered the house, she grabbed me by the collar and started dragging me and screaming. She accused me of disrespecting a prophet and hanging up the phone on him, that did I think he’s a small boy?”
The Benin-born footballer stated that things came to a head in late 2023, when Jane allegedly asked for £45 about two days after Omoruyi said he gave her £2,000 out of his monthly salary.
He allegedly urged her to use the money in her account and promised to refund twice the amount at the end of the month; a suggestion which reportedly sparked anger from Jane.
“She insisted that she didn’t have money and if she didn’t get that £45 from me, she threatened to show me that my life was in her hands in the UK. Her mother intervened and they started having a heated argument.
“I left the scene, went to microwave my food and went to eat. She came to where I was eating, carried the food I was eating and poured it on my head. I just lost it. I punched her in the forehead. Later, when I calmed down I went to apologise to her and she said she never believed I would hit her.”
Although the couple apologised to each other and Jane’s family, Saturday PUNCH gathered that this did not put an end to the alleged verbal and physical abuse of Omoruyi.
About this time, Jane allegedly asked him for some money to change the bed in their room, the chairs in the sitting room and the wardrobe. The total sum of which was £3,900.
“I gave her my phone and she transferred the money to her account. They told us they would bring the new furniture three days later and fix everything so I took that day off from work because I had to be at home to help them.
“Everything was fixed that day; her mum and everyone else was happy. We were all happy. That night, we were lying down and she started crying. I asked her ‘Baby what’s wrong?’ She said I have no idea how long she had been praying and fasting for a man like me. She said I was so sweet and kind and I did anything she wanted for her and on top of that she misbehaves sometimes,” Omoruyi recalled.
‘Why I was arrested, detained’
In November 2023, Omoruyi claimed that a heated argument erupted in the home, which made Jane call his workplace to cancel his shift because they had not yet “finished the conversation from last night.”
She allegedly threatened to get the authorities to deport him if he left her. However, on November 11, 2023, this nightmare became a frightful reality.
“I was coming from work and a sister with whom I worked gave me a free ride to the house,” Omoruyi recalled. “As soon as I alighted from the sister’s car, the police were there to pick me up. They confirmed my name and I asked what they were arresting me for.
“They told me my wife reported that I was threatening to kill her. I was shocked. They said anything I said would be used against me in the court of law that I had to follow them to the station.
“They drove me that night to Southford Police Station. They called a legal aide for me and they put me in a cell. Three days later, on Monday, I was taken to Gilforth Court and it was there I saw about 19 charges against me.”
Subjected to a series of questions, Omoruyi said he pleaded not guilty to all the charges, except when they asked him about the instance where he punched Jane.
“I pleaded guilty to that one but I told them I wasn’t the one who started it; it was out of anger that I hit back. One of the judges asked how would I plead guilty for that and not the other charges.
“I told them it’s because nothing like the others, including the alleged threat to kill her, happened, and I could prove it. The jury went inside to deliberate about it and later came out to say that since her accusation against me included a threat of murder, they couldn’t release me. I was remanded until an investigation by the police is concluded,” he said.
For six months, Omoruyi was allegedly remanded in Wandsworth prison without any call or visitation, even from his legal aide.
Two days before his trial which was scheduled to take place on May 7, 2024, his legal aide for the first time, came to the prison and informed him that they had conducted an investigation and found that what he said was true.
“They told me they just wanted me to plead guilty for hitting her back and that would be cited as self-defence, so I would get two or three weeks or a maximum of one-month sentence.
“They explained that since I had already been in prison for six months, which was like a year, I should sign and they would release me to go home. Signing this was the greatest mistake of my life, and that’s because I have never been arrested,” Omoruyi stated with a tone of regret.
Facing deportation
Omoruyi said he was asked if he would like to return to his wife, a request which he vehemently refused despite their attempts to change his mind.
However, being true to their word, he was released from prison. But that was not the end of his ordeal.
“As I was coming out from prison, immigration officers were there and said they needed to pick me up. When I asked what I did, they said I was now a foreign criminal and they gave me some documents, that I was liable for deportation.
“That was how I was taken from Wandsworth Prison to Heathrow Immigration Detention Centre. It was there I met my friend whom I’m staying with now. It was also a prison, but the difference is that we were allowed to go out the whole day in the secluded environment,” he added.
When Omoruyi was given a phone, he learnt from his uncle in Nigeria that his wife’s family had allegedly sent a letter to the police, his legal aide and the court to detail how Jane abused him.
“But nobody told me anything,” Omoruyi sighed in regret. “Now that I had signed those documents, I would now be classified as a criminal.”
Through the effort of an immigration lawyer hired by his family, Omoruyi was finally released on October 11, 2024, after spending five months in the detention centre.
Omoruyi noted that he was advised by his lawyer to apply for asylum to stay in the country and during an interview with the authorities, he explained why he could not return to Nigeria.
“I told them I can’t go back because Nigeria is not safe for me. I left Nigeria when I was small. I only passed through Nigeria when I wanted to do my documentation. I lived in Ghana. If you wanted to deport me to Ghana, no problem, but you can’t deport me to Nigeria. Where am I going to start from?” he queried.
Shocking revelations
As Omoruyi was just settling down to a new life after being out of detention, he was allegedly hit by a heavy financial blow.
“When I logged into my bank account, it was empty. I was shocked because I remember I had about £49,000 in it. I thought the app wasn’t working properly. But, even after I deleted and reinstalled the app, it was showing me £0.01 balance, so we went to the bank, and I presented my release copy letter and the bank promised to investigate the fraud and within three months, they would see what to do,” he revealed.
During the live session on X, a member of the Nigerian community in the UK who saw his bank account statement confirmed that most of the money was wired from his account to Nigeria through various transfers.
“I don’t know why the bank is not trying to get the money because he already showed them all the proofs that he wasn’t the one using the account at the time,” she stated.
Omoruyi disclosed that the bank had sent him a letter that he was a victim of fraud and acknowledged how stressful it must have been for him.
“After so many weeks of waiting, they also sent me a letter to say that they are going to close my account on the 23rd of next month,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jane and the Nigerian prophet reportedly tried to reach Omoruyi a number of times. His wife’s family, recently gave him some distressing information.
“Her family put a recorder in her room to listen to what she was saying. It was the pastor she spoke to on the phone who told her to have me arrested, that if she didn’t arrest me, she wouldn’t have any control over me. The plan was that when I got released, I would abide by whatever she said. But my six-month remand spoilt their plan.
“In another recording, I heard her crying that he (the pastor) had destroyed her marriage. Later, she began dating the pastor and he was sending her money. When he couldn’t do this anymore, she decided to go for my money till she emptied it.”
Omoruyi further alleged that Jane was not working and dependent absolutely on him.
“I once told her because of the goals I have, I wanted her to be working even if it was twice a week, like the bank shift I did. At least she could use that money to do something and I will be saving like £5,000 and in five years, that would be something.
“She said she has been working all her life and I knew she didn’t finish from the university and now that I was there to help her, I was complaining, that I should leave her, after all, when she finishes resting, she would start working.
“But from the recording, when they emptied my account, the pastor asked her to start working and she complied. That was the most painful part,” he said.
When our correspondent reached out to Omoruyi to collect evidence of the audio recordings he claimed to have made of his ex-wife’s outbursts, he declined.
“For safety reasons, I was advised not to, because I’m going to submit them in court as evidence for retrial process with the Criminal Case Review Commission,” he wrote.
However, Saturday PUNCH gathered that as of Wednesday, netizens had continued to crowdfund money for him on X so he could afford a lawyer and fight against his deportation.
Our correspondent could not reach Jane for comments.
NB: The names of the parties have been changed