US Supreme Court to Hear Nigerian’s Asylum Case Over ‘Unknown Gunmen’
- The US Supreme Court agreed to review whether cooking for a suspected terrorist group counts as 'material support' under immigration law
- Izuchukwu Ozurumba, a Nigerian man, said he was held against his will and forced to cook at a camp linked to the Unknown Gunmen separatist group
- The Donald Trump administration appealed a lower court ruling that sided with Ozurumba, arguing the decision would weaken terrorism-related immigration restrictions
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Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over eight years of experience covering metro, government policy, and international issues.
Washington, USA - The United States Supreme Court has agreed to take up the federal government's challenge to an asylum case involving a Nigerian man who says he was held captive and forced to prepare meals for a camp linked to the Unknown Gunmen, a group with alleged ties to separatists in Nigeria.
As reported by Reuters, the court confirmed on Tuesday, October 13, that it would review a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which had overturned a lower court ruling against Izuchukwu Ozurumba. The central question is whether cooking for members of a suspected terrorist organisation amounts to providing "material support" under US immigration law.
Source: Twitter
Nigerian cook deported after asylum rejection
According to court documents, Ozurumba travelled to a remote camp outside Lagos in 2022 after hearing about a job opening. He was taken on as a cook, but grew suspicious after noticing that the movements of some young men at the camp matched reports of killings and arson in the area. His lawyers said he tried to leave but was prevented from doing so and made to continue working without pay.
After six months, he managed to escape during a supply run and returned to Lagos. He later suffered beatings and received death threats, which drove him to flee to Venezuela, where the threats reportedly continued. In July 2023, he crossed into the US illegally through its southern border and applied for asylum.
An immigration judge, appointed during the administration of former President Joe Biden, denied his applications, ruling that the Unknown Gunmen qualified as a terrorist organisation and that preparing food for its members met the legal threshold for material support. The judge said feeding the group helped it meet "basic human needs" and that Ozurumba's claims of coercion did not exempt him from the restriction. He was deported to Nigeria in 2025, even as his appeal remained pending.
US Supreme Court to review Nigerian’s asylum case
In September 2025, two of three judges on the Fourth Circuit panel ruled in Ozurumba's favour, finding that he was a captive labourer whose work "provided nothing that the organisation could use or readily divert to plan or carry out its terrorist activities." The court ordered his case to be reconsidered but declined to compel authorities to bring him back to the US while proceedings continued.
The Trump administration's Justice Department then petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that cooking for a terrorist group is a clear form of material support. "Providing meals to a terrorist organization's members is no less a material form of support than providing gasoline for its vehicles," the department argued, adding that leaving the appellate ruling intact would "substantially increase the burden on the government in excluding aliens with links to terrorism."
Source: Twitter
Aimee Mayer-Salins, a lawyer at the Amica Centre for Immigrant Rights, which is representing Ozurumba, said the case has broad consequences for asylum seekers.
"At stake in this case is whether the government can use an overly broad reading of the law to shut the door on people seeking asylum," she said, adding that the appellate court "correctly recognised that asylum should not be denied to immigrants who provided no meaningful support to a terrorist group."
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments and deliver its ruling before the end of June 2027.
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Terrorists kidnap, kill 106 health workers
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that armed groups, criminal kidnappers, and terrorists abducted 91 health workers and killed 15 others across 101 separate attacks on Nigerian healthcare facilities between 2023 and 2025, according to a new international report.
The figures come from the 'Care in the Crosshairs: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2025' report, published by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. The data was compiled using Insecurity Insight's global monitoring system and covers incidents across the three-year window.
Source: Legit.ng
