BRITISH pregnant woman Robyn Daodu has started an online petition to stop her Nigerian Olympic boxer husband from being deported from the UK after he was turned down by the British Army.  

Adedayo Victor Daodu came to the UK for the London 2012 Games as a member of the Nigerian boxing squad and decided to stay. Before the 2012 Olympics, Victor, 25, signed up for the British Army and was invited to the UK for recruitment but his application was subsequently rejected and he now faces deportation. 

Last week, he was locked up at the Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire, Scotland and told he faces being returned to Lagos. After the Olympics, the British Army wrote to Victor inviting him to return to the UK for recruitment and he had looked forward to a successful career.

After passing written and physical tests, he applied to extend his visa so he could stay in Britain before enlisting and he subsequently got married and moved to Salford with his wife in July 2013. However, Victor was soon told that due to new guidelines, his application to join the Army had been refused.

Robyn and Victor applied for asylum in a bid to stay together and claim they were told by the Home Office they could get married pending the application. They assumed Victor’s UK residency would not be a problem.

However, after marrying in April last year, his asylum claim was refused  three months later and the couple say the Home Office have told them they should move to Nigeria. According to Robyn, they have spent £4,000 in legal fees after a number of failed appeals. 

Victor was most recently refused leave to stay in March and in April, he spent two weeks in the immigration centre but was released after an appeal. Oldham East and Saddleworth MP, Debbie Abrahams, was able to help get Victor released from the centre last Thursday and the couple are now waiting for a reply to another appeal. 

Immigration rules mean that anyone applying for a visa as the spouse of a British citizen had to have the legal right to be here for at least the next six months when they got married. They also have to be able to prove they can support themselves financially.

Robyn, 27 said: “It took the army a year to tell him he couldn’t join. The Home Office should have told him he couldn’t stay a long time ago if that’s what was always going to happen.

"I don’t understand why they’ve only started detaining him now after we’ve set up a life, got married and I’ve become pregnant. The communication just hasn’t been there, the stress is unbearable and none of this would have happened if not for the army’s slowness in letting Victor know about the change in the acceptance rules."

She added that she needs him and his unborn child needs him. Victor too said he wants to be available for his wife and unborn child.