A Nigerian man who was jailed for threatening a British mother with a knife in front of her young child has won a legal battle to remain in the United Kingdom on human rights grounds.
The Offence and Conviction
Olajide Shinaba, aged 32, was sentenced to 11 months in prison in December 2018 after pleading guilty to affray. The court heard how Shinaba, after a disagreement with a woman he knew, produced a knife and lunged at her while her daughter watched. He later claimed that if the victim had been a man, he would have stabbed her, though it was accepted his intention was to scare her in a 'moment of madness'.
The Home Office subsequently moved to deport Shinaba, arguing his removal was 'conducive to the public good'. His initial appeal against this decision was rejected.
The Path to the Upper Tribunal
Shinaba, who first arrived in the UK in June 2003 aged ten, had a complex immigration history. He was granted discretionary leave to remain in 2011. In 2017, he applied for indefinite leave to remain, but committed the knife offence while this application was under consideration.
Following his release from prison, his circumstances changed. He married a British woman in an Islamic ceremony in August 2021 and they have two children together, born in June 2022 and November 2023. He also has a British daughter from a previous relationship, born in February 2018.
After the Home Office rejected his human rights claim, he appealed. The Home Office launched a counter-appeal, leading to the case being heard in the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
The Judge's Ruling on 'Significant Obstacles'
Upper Tribunal Judge Luke Bulpitt allowed Shinaba's appeal. The judge found that Shinaba had established a strong private life in the UK over 22 years, with family ties including his wife, children, and parents.
Critically, the judge ruled that Shinaba would face 'very significant obstacles to integration' in Nigeria. Judge Bulpitt noted that Shinaba left Nigeria as a child and had only returned once, aged eleven, meaning he had no adult experience of life, work, or securing accommodation there.
'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 judge stated. The ruling also considered a traumatic head injury Shinaba suffered in 2008, which he claimed affected his ability to process information.
The decision underscores the weight given to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, even in cases involving serious criminality, when balanced against the difficulties of reintegrating into a country left in childhood.
