A Nigerian man deported from the US says he was secretly left in Togo and is now stranded with no way forward.

• Nigerian deportee says Ghana moved him secretly into Togo.

• Stuck in Lomé hotel, no papers, surviving on family support.

• Fears arrest in Nigeria; family in US struggling.

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A Nigerian man sent back from the US to Ghana says he is now stranded in a Togo hotel. He told the BBC that Ghanaian officers secretly moved him and five others across the border.

He explained that they were told they were being moved from a military camp to better housing, but were instead left in Togo. The BBC has asked Ghana’s government to respond.

The US deported the man, along with other West Africans, as part of its immigration crackdown. Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa earlier said Ghana received them out of “pan-African empathy.”

The Nigerian, who asked not to be named for safety, claimed the transfer into Togo was done through an unofficial route, after Ghanaian officers allegedly bribed local police and failed to notify Togolese authorities.

“They avoided the official border,” he said. “We were taken through a back route, the police there were paid, and we were left in Togo.”

Togo’s authorities have not responded to claims that the deportees are on their soil.

Four of them — three Nigerians and one Liberian — later booked into a hotel in Lomé, the capital city just across the border.

Without papers of their own, he said hotel workers had to receive money from relatives abroad to pay their bills.

“We’re barely surviving here in Togo without documents,” he explained. “None of us has family here. We’re stuck in a hotel, waiting for our lawyers to step in.”

He added that in Ghana they had pleaded for better conditions, since the military camp they were kept in was “terrible.”

“Life there was very tough,” he said. “We asked for proper shelter, medicine, healthcare, and clean water.”

He recalled that a few days later, immigration officers came to the camp and told six of them they were being moved to a hotel for comfort, but they were instead driven across the border into Togo.

“When we got to the border, we asked why, and they said we needed to sign papers before going to a hotel. We refused to sign anything,” he said.

The Nigerian explained that life in Togo was even harder because of the language barrier. While he spoke English, Togo’s official language is French, making communication difficult.

He added that deportation had left his family in the US struggling. “I have a house there where my children live. I don’t know how the mortgage will be paid. My kids can’t see me, and it’s so stressful,” he told the BBC.

The man said he belonged to the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, a group pushing for a breakaway state in Nigeria’s southwest. The organisation is legal but closely watched, and dozens of its members were arrested last year.

Because of this link, he fears being detained or tortured if he returns to Nigeria. He also insisted he was under a US court order that should have protected him from deportation.

The United States has not explained why the Nigerian man was deported.

He was among a group of West Africans – including citizens of Togo, Liberia, and The Gambia – who were sent to Ghana last month after being held in a US detention centre. Lawyers said they were flown out on a military plane in shackles.

Washington’s “third-country deportation” policy has drawn criticism, with Nigeria and other nations resisting the approach.

Former President John Mahama announced the deal for Ghana to receive the deportees three weeks ago, saying the US made the request and he agreed under the principle of free movement in West Africa.

Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa later clarified that Ghana did not receive any payment for taking in the deportees.

Opposition lawmakers have called for the programme to be halted until parliament approves it. However, the government has indicated it expects to accept another 40 deportees.

Meanwhile, lawyers representing the group have filed cases against both the US and Ghana, arguing their rights were violated.

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