Nigerian mother Pamela Izevbekhai has been told by the Supreme Court she has until late May to instruct new lawyers to bring her appeal in that court aimed at preventing the deportation of herself and her two young daughters.
Ms Izevbekhai is challenging deportation on grounds her daughters Naomi (7) and Jemima (6) will be subject to forcible female genital mutilation (FGM) if returned to Nigeria.
She is seeking new lawyers because her former legal team withdrew from the case last month in circumstances where she admitted documents used to support her original claim to stay here had been forged.
Sligo-based Ms Izevbekhai has lost a number of High Court bids to prevent the deportations and the legal actions led to the intervention last November of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which secured assurances from the Government at that stage to postpone any moves to deport them pending the ECHR’s examination of the case.
Last month, follwoing media reports, Ms Izevbekhai acknowledged some documents supplied to the court in support of her action were forged but she stood over her claim of having had a baby daughter, Elizabeth, who died from blood loss as a result of FGM.
She said her husband, who is in Nigeria, had admitted to her he obtained fake documents after the doctor who had treated Elizabeth demanded a substantial payment in exchange for the genuine papers.
In light of that information, her lawyers asked the Supreme Court to discharge them from the case and the State applied to have her appeal dismissed on grounds the entire matter had proceeded “on a lie that is so fundamental” it should be struck out.
The matter was adjourned until today to allow Ms Izevbekhai take steps to instruct new lawyers.
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, was told today Ms Izevbekhai had spoken to a number of solicitors and was now dealing with one in particular but none was in place as of yet.
Hugh Mohan SC, for the State, said they were anxious to have their application to dismiss the proceedings heard as soon as possible.
Mr Justice Murray told Ms Izevbekhai, through her previous solicitor Gabriel Toolan, who is waiting to come off record until a new lawyer is in place, she must take all steps to advance the matter.
He adjourned the case to May 28th, saying that should be enough time for a new solicitor to be in place and for any affidavits from Ms Izevekhai to be sworn and filed.