Edwin Ijeoma, professor who renounced Nigerian citizenship, expelled from his new country

The court’s acting judge, Mickey Mfenyana, upheld the initial judgment from 2020 which found Mr Ijeoma guilty of falsifying his marital status to the department, thereby making his South African citizenship null and void.

The judge further held that her ruling cannot be appealed, adding that another court will not differ from her finding as Mr Ijeoma “was disingenuous, if not dishonest, and that there was no reason to interfere with the minister’s decision.”

Ms Mfenyana further held that Mr Ijeoma had presented contradictory reasons for his bigamous actions.

“That as an African man, he believed he was entitled to marry more than one wife; and that he represented himself as single because he was not aware that South Africa recognised customary marriages,” Times quoted Ms Mfenyana as saying.

The judge noted that Mr Ijeoma concealed his marriage in Nigeria from officials on three occasions: when he applied for permanent residence in South Africa, when he got married in the country and when he applied for citizenship.

That, the judge held, was highly improbable for an academic, “who by his own admission is of good and sound mind and an intellectual giant,” to have remained “ignorant of the implications of not disclosing his Nigerian marriage” throughout his stay in the country and his encounters with immigration matters.

In defence, Mr Ijeoma told the court he obtained a permanent residence permit because of his “good and sound character” rather than his marriage to the South African woman.

He argued that the human affairs ministry failed to consider his intellectual contribution to the country as a result of his research as an academic, and his role at the Africa Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), where, according to his LinkedIn profile, he is a pioneer research specialist.

Ms Mfenyana rebuffed this saying it was stated in the exemption certificate he got that marriage was the basis for his exemption. She also recalled that in 2015, Mr Ijeoma pleaded to home affairs to have compassion on him, that he obtained citizenship by naturalisation as a result of the marriage.