…Family recalled difficulty on how payment of a hefty ransom fee was made for release in terrorists’ captivity
*Immigration Judge Yul-Mi Cho rules suspect met all standards for Asylum despite two prior Operating Under the Influence convictions
*Manages West African Restaurant Suya Joint in Boston, worked in Residential Homecare, biological sister cries Tear of Joy after Historic Ruling
*“I was mentally and psychologically damaged. I had nightmares… It felt like I was being watched, like I was being followed around. I did not feel safe. I came here to the United States for a normal life due to my trauma in the hands of Boko Haram in Nigeria-PAUL DAMA
*BY PHILIP FAVOUR BOLUWATIFE/SOUTHWEST REPORTER, Nigeria /Naija Standard Newspaper Inc USA
HE is a Nigerian famous journalist, well known for his reportorial days at the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA. During his journalism career, PAUL DAMA was kidnapped and tortured by the blood-thirsty Boko Haram. It only took the mercy and grace of God after a hefty ransom was paid by for him to have breathed freedom upon release by the terrorists in Nigeria.
He suffered fear, trauma and anxiety daily. Dama had to find a way of escape to Boston, United States. Twice he was arrested for Operating Under Influence, OUI, booked by the police, put on trial and convicted. Only to be picked up again by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE in New Hampshire on his way to church since his arrest on June 15, 2025, after he had filed for an Asylum.
Notwithstanding, ICE had him chained waist down in an underground detention facility due to the fact he overstayed his lawful presence on his visitor’s visa in the United States, plus the convictions he had earlier on his record.
But Heaven smiled at Dama after an immigration judge ruled that he is eligible for asylum and can legally remain on American soil, a decision that potentially clears the way for his release from over three months of federal detention.
This Nigerian man, who fled the horrors of Boko Haram terrorism and political persecution back home, appeared before Immigration Judge Yul-Mi Cho via video conference and laid bare the harrowing details of his captivity, torture, and the psychological scars that followed.
“Going back to Nigeria would be like a death sentence to me,” Dama told the court, as he recounted the nightmarish ordeal that drove him to seek refuge in the United States.
Dama revealed to the judge how, in 2018, he was captured and tortured by Boko Haram Militants-a Muslim extremist group operating in northeast Nigeria that the United States government has designated as a terrorist organisation. As a journalist for the Nigerian Television Authority, Dama said he was targeted for his work and his advocacy fighting for a free Nigerian society. Local police, he stated, did nothing to protect him. It was only after his family scraped together money to pay a ransom that he was eventually released, but the threats never stopped.
“I was mentally and psychologically damaged”, Dama told Judge Cho. “I had nightmares… It felt like I was being watched, like I was being followed around. I did not feel safe. I came here to have a normal life,” he stated.
Upon arriving in the United States, Dama rebuilt his life from the ground up. He became the manager at the award-winning West African restaurant Suya Joint, run by his sister, Cecelia Lizotte, which has locations in both Boston and Providence. He also took up work in residential home care, where he became one of the primary caregivers for 84-year-old Agnes Hodges.
On top of all that, Dama married a U.S. citizen and had begun the process of applying for a green card when ICE came knocking.
Federal immigration authorities reportedly said that the reason for Dama’s arrest was that he had been living in the country after his visitor visa expired in 2019, and that he had two OUI convictions from 2024. It was during this period while still completing a one-year probation related to his second OUI that he was detained.
During the hearing, Dama laid bare the painful chain of events that led to his struggles with alcohol. He described the devastating loss of his mother in Nigeria; a woman he was unable to see or say goodbye to because of the persecution he faced back home.
The grief and depression that followed drove him to drinking. For the OUI incidents, he was found asleep in his parked car on the side of the road. He explained to the judge that he deliberately stayed in his car because he did not want to get behind the wheel and risk injuring anyone.
What impressed the court, however, was what Dama did after hitting rock bottom. He voluntarily enrolled himself at High Point Treatment Center for therapy to address his PTSD, a step he took entirely of his own accord, not because any court ordered him to.
“I learned how to identify stress, how to identify of dealing with my trauma and my triggers, taught me to develop new hobbies and new habits, taught me abstinence”, Dama told the judge. He noted that back in Nigeria, when things like that happen, we pray but that therapy in America had given him the tools to cope and heal.
Judge Cho was clearly moved. She acknowledged that Dama had done the work of searching and diving into his own past traumas to improve and come from under those haunting memories in his life. The judge noted the evidence presented regarding his work as a reporter, his political activism, and the documented persecution he suffered.
For the foregoing reasons, the court finds that the respondent has met his burden of establishing a well-founded future persecution on account of his political activism and that he has demonstrated his eligibility for asylum as a matter of discretion, Judge Cho ruled.
The ruling is even more remarkable when one considers the judge’s own track record.
Judge Cho, who has served as an immigration judge since 2023, has granted asylum or other relief in only 18 percent of the cases she has heard over the past two years-far below the national average of approximately 42 percent, according to the nonprofit data research centre TRAC. That Dama’s case fell within that narrow 18 percent speaks volumes about the strength of his testimony and evidence.
His attorney, Abeba Attles, expressed relief after the ruling. He had two prior OUIs, and the judge has discretion in this kind of case-either to deny or grant asylum.
Today, the judge used her discretion and granted him asylum. She recognised the effort that Dama has made.
Dama’s sister, Cecelia Lizotte, who attended the hearing remotely, was overcome with emotion when the verdict was delivered. “I am ecstatic, I am crying”, she told reporters.
He told his story. He explained exactly what he went through and what he would continue to do if granted asylum in the United States. Lizotte said she believes Judge Cho heard and understood the depth of the past trauma her brother endured at the hands of terrorists and a system that failed him.
However, the story is not yet over. It remains unclear whether Dama will be released from immigration detention. He was initially denied release back in July, and while his asylum case is legally separate from his deportation case, the federal government retains the right to appeal the asylum ruling, a window that remains open until October 23. As of press time, the government has not indicated whether it intends to challenge the decision.
Lizotte is hoping, and praying, that her brother will be freed as soon as possible so he can return to his life, his work, his community, and the country that gave him a second.
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