No evidence Nigerian president Bola Tinubu blocked US deportation flight from landing
IN SHORT: Multiple Facebook posts claim that president Bola Tinubu blocked a deportation flight from the United States from landing in Nigeria. There is no evidence for this.
President Bola Tinubu has blocked a deportation flight from the United States from landing in Nigeria. That's according to Facebook posts circulating in Nigeria.
One such post was shared in a public group with over 124,500 members. It reads: "Breaking News: Tinubu Blocks U.S. Deportation Flight from Landing in Nigeria Over Lack of Timely Notice - "Take Them Back," He Declares. U.S. Deportation Plane Stuck in Air for 23 Hours, Waiting for Landing License as Tinubu Refuses Approval, Vows to Deny Entry."
The claim can also be found here, here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of the report.)
Since his inauguration as the 47th president of the US, Donald Trump has signed dozens of executive orders and taken a tough stance against undocumented immigrants.
According to media reports, the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement, or ICE, has arrested over 8,000 migrants. Over 4,700 people have been deported to Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and Ecuador.
At least 3,690 Nigerians face deportation among the 1.45 million non-US citizens on ICE's docket.
The deportation of hundreds of Colombians led to a diplomatic row between the US and Colombia, when the Colombian president Gustavo Petro rejected deportation flights.
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Petro later accepted the flights after Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Colombian goods and threatened stiffer sanctions.
Has Tinubu similarly blocked a US deportation flight from landing in Nigeria? We checked.
No evidence of the claim
Petro's initial refusal to accept the deportation of Colombians on US military planes and the aftermath were widely reported by international media. It is unlikely that that same action by Tinubu would go unreported.
Therefore, the fact that Africa Check did not find any credible media reports on Tinubu stopping a US deportation flight from landing in Nigeria was a red flag.
At time of publication there was no evidence of any US deportation flights to the continent of Africa.
There is also no evidence any of the Nigerians on the US deportation list have been deported since Trump began his 2025 mass deportation campaign.
The claim is false.
The false claim was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
