Mr Udo’s quest for asylum in the US moved from the American immigration system to a courtroom in 2022 after his application was denied. He had told authorities that he was caught in 2015 having sex with his boyfriend in a hotel in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria’s South-south.

Based on his claim, the US Court of Appeals, on 4 May 2022, ordered the country’s Board of Immigration Appeals to reconsider Mr Udo’s request for asylum. The court ruled that he provided convincing evidence that he would be tortured if deported to Nigeria.

The Board of Immigration Appeals is now rehearing his asylum request. The case is ongoing.

One of the documents Mr Udo filed with the US immigration agency is an ex-communication notice he claimed was written by the “Council of Traditional Rulers, Ukana Community” in Ukana Ikot Otu Village, which allegedly banished his family from the community because of his gay status.

“In accordance to our traditional code of conduct, your son Peter Donatus Udo has committed an offence under Section 2, Paragraph C, which states: That any citizen of this community found practising homosexuality, bisexual, transgender or any other related sexual act is subjected to public execution,” the fake document state in parts.

“On 16 April 2015, your son was caught practising this act and apprehended, detained for public execution, and he escaped.”

The purported ex-communication notice listed Mr Udo’s mother and five other family members and ordered all of them banished from the community until Mr Udo surrendered himself for “public execution.”

Mr Udo told authorities that a waiter who wanted to serve him breakfast in his hotel room at Sheraton Hotel, Ikot Ekpene, had opened the door without knocking and caught him having sex with a man, according to court documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

“The waiter screamed and called hotel security, which detained the couple and called a local ‘community security’ group to report the incident. The security group tied Udo and his boyfriend by their hands and legs, threatened to kill them for committing an ‘abomination,’ and took them away,” one of the court documents narrated.

“For the next six hours, the group beat the couple with sticks and metal rods, spit on them, threw sand in their eyes, and yelled anti-gay slurs. The beating caused Udo to bleed and eventually scar. Udo was taken to a detention centre, from which he escaped. He then travelled to a distant town where he was treated for his injuries at a hospital with the help of a stranger.

“After recovering, Udo contacted his mother, who told him that the Nigerian police had come looking for him at his home. She also told him that the leaders of his village had asked her to turn in Udo because he had committed an abomination and should be put to death. Udo’s mother met him at a bus stop the next day, gave him clothes and money, and told him to flee. Udo travelled to the United States.”

Mr Udo, who predicated his asylum application on the Convention Against Torture, which the US is a signatory to, said his life would be at risk if he is sent back to Nigeria.

Fake document for asylum

A PREMIUM TIMES team travelled from Abuja to Akwa Ibom State to investigate Mr Udo’s claims.

After days of intense investigation, our team found his narrative and supporting documents to be false. Our checks showed that Ukana Ikot Otu, the village Mr Udo claimed wanted to execute him, is in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

When our reporters got to Ukana Ikot Otu on 22 July, the village head turned out to be Saviour Umoh, and not “John Asanga” written on the purported ex-communication notice from the “Council of Traditional Rulers, Ukana Community” filed by Mr Udo with US authorities.

“No, this is not from us. It is fake,” Mr Umoh, the village head, said with a shrug when our reporter showed him a copy of the purported notice from the “Council of Traditional Rulers, Ukana Community”.

Our reporters asked the village head to name his predecessors to enable them to determine that there was no previous village head by the name “John Asanga”.

“I was elected village head in 2015 – on 4 August 2015,” Mr Umoh responded. “We’ve never had any village head by that name.”

Mr Umoh then dashed into his living room, emerging shortly afterwards with his certificate of recognition as village head of Ukana Ikot Otu, which he gave our reporters to scrutinise.

The certificate was issued to him by the administration of the then Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, who governed the state between May 29, 2015 and May 29, 2023.

As our reporters interviewed Mr Umoh, his wife sat beside him on a plastic chair on the veranda of their home. A man from the community sat close to the couple. Besides these three were two other men, though not from the village – the two had guided our reporters to the village head’s residence, about an hour’s drive from Ikot Ekpene city.

Mr Umoh said there was no one bearing the name Peter Donatus Udo in the village and no such family. He said the village had not had such an experience as in the so-called notice from the “Council of Traditional Rulers, Ukana Community”.

“In Annang land, traditional rulers don’t bear the title of Edidem. It is common among the Efik, and maybe some parts of Ibibio land,” Mr Umoh said of “Edidem John O. Asanga”, who purportedly signed off as village head of Ukana Ikot Otu in the fake document.

Another piece of evidence that the document is fake is the address of the secretariat on the letterhead of the “Council of Traditional Rulers, Ukana Community”, which is stated as 23 Ewet Housing Estate, Ukana.

Ewet Housing Estate is in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, and not in Essien Udim Local Government Area of the state, our checks showed.

Although homosexual relationships are illegal in Nigeria, there is no law or local custom in the country prescribing the death penalty for offenders.

Nigeria’s anti-gay law, enacted in January 2014 by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, stipulates a 14-year prison term for anyone convicted of having sex with members of the same sex.

The Nigerian government put the law to the test for the first time in December 2019 when 47 men arrested by the police in a hotel in Lagos the previous year were arraigned in court, accused of publicly displaying affection for members of the same sex.

All 47 men pleaded not guilty and were granted bail by the court. A federal judge later struck out the charges against the men because of a “lack of diligent prosecution” by the police.

‘No, not in our hotel.’

Mr Udo said he was caught having sex with his gay partner at “Sinadee Hotel”, not Sheraton Hotel, which he previously mentioned after US authorities told him there was no Sheraton Hotel in Ikot Ekpene.

Mr Udo said he lied about the location while he was questioned by investigators because he was afraid, according to court documents.

Our reporters, on 27 July, visited Sinadee Guest House, Ikot Ekpene, and spoke with the hotel manager, who gave his name simply as Innocent. The manager said such an incident did not happen in the facility.

Innocent said he had been the hotel manager since 2019 when Mr Udo claimed the incident happened.

Asylum seekers and sexual orientation

Many Nigerians are leaving Nigeria for other countries, especially in North America, Europe and Asia, because of economic hardship. But several of them prefer to manufacture stories of persecution because of sexual orientation as their reason for fleeing their country, as shown by a PREMIUM TIMES investigation.

Evidence shows the United States and Canada are often sympathetic to applicants claiming to be fleeing their home countries due to persecution arising from their sexual orientations. Many of the claims are generally false, but authorities in those countries are, sometimes, unaware of that.

In 2022, 20,724 people reportedly fled Nigeria and applied for asylum in other countries, according to UNHCR data.

The report said of that number, 2,843 fled to the United States.

“With 234 positive decisions, 27.34 per cent of all new applications have been accepted (by the US government). Another 622 applications were rejected, and no decisions were made on those remaining in 2022,” the report said.