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| Ajomale |
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You studied Economics, why music then?
Music for me is an inborn thing, it runs
in the family. My late dad was a renown organist and accordionist
coordinating the choir and that’s where I picked it up.
Why didn’t you study music then?
I didn’t because I believed it was just a
natural thing for me. The same question was asked by the Papa Awolowo
when I was playing for him at the Ogun State University in March 1983.
He was asking the vice chancellor whether I studied music. It’s just a
natural thing.
Which means that you didn’t use the certificate to work?
Well, I only did when I was working as a
financial analyst. I worked with the Union Bank while I was doing my
youth service. I won the best corps member award and got an automatic
employment after my service and started a programme at the Bendel State
Television Station. Then I was invited back to Lagos where I worked as
an analyst reporting and coordinating marketing activities for Kodak
International. That was all I did with the certificate.
Oke Mimo, an album you and others
did as choir of Ayo Ni o Movement, was a chartbuster, I expected you to
be swimming in millions.
We sold millions but we did it for the
church and for the glory of God. I never made a dime on my own; it was a
way of rendering your talent for God and that is what we believe in
Nigeria. But it is different in America. I sang the song and we all
marketed it but I never made a dime even till present.
On your own, can you mention about one or two hit albums you made?
The first one was a tribute to Papa
Awolowo. After getting such a complement from him while I was serving in
Benin and when I heard that he had passed on, I came to see his family
and went into the studio to record an album in his memory. I did
Comforter which was a breakthrough album and it was played everywhere. I
got an invitation to come to the United States of America. In the US, I
did two, Always by my Side and Great Testimony and they did very well
in the market.
Did you enter America with valid papers?
I entered the US with a valid passport
and a valid visa. I was invited by a church, Mountain of Peace C and S
Church, Washington, for a musical workshop and it lasted for three
months. Six of us went on the trip and after the workshop, the visa
expired after six months and I didn’t know anything about the
immigration stuff in America. I didn’t know I would need social security
and other papers. I lost my status and that was the beginning of my
problem in America.
But it was reported that you entered the US with forged papers.
No, that is not true. I entered America
first with valid papers. I was given the visa on March 13 and I left
Nigeria on April 11 and got to America on April 12 1997. I want them to
check the record; I got there legally with a visiting visa but it got
expired after six months. The church promised to help; they got an
immigration lawyer for me but the filing wasn’t approved and I ran out
of status. I borrowed money to go to America then and I had to work to
be able to pay back. I stayed back until I got a job; I got the social
security but I didn’t have green card. Throughout my stay in America, I
was working with my social security number. I never used any other
person’s or any other thing except the time I came to Nigeria in 2001
and I am not going to lie about that. I got a call from home that my dad
was sick and I didn’t know how to get to Nigeria and I am the first
son, remember I told you that I had lost my status since. A brother that
I brought in to live with me in my first house in America suggested
that I could use his information to travel home which I did successfully
without any problem. Everything was done perfectly, I submitted my
valid passport and the immigration people saw everything. I got back to
America without any problem.
But what you did was not legal.
Yes, it was not legal and that was the
mistake of my life. That mistake has turned into a ministry now because I
keep telling people, if for any reason you have to travel, make sure
your stay is as directed by your visa. I paid for that mistake because
it was the same brother that reported me to the authorities when I got
my own green card. The second time I came to Nigeria, I came with my own
green card. Even that time that I used his passport, I was not arrested
and he was the same person that took me to the airport and called my
mum that I was safely back. My dad did not die until seven years after
and by that time, I already had my green card. Before I got back to
America, this guy had reported me to the immigration. His name is
Emmanuel Adetokunbo Adegoke. When people asked him why he did that, he
said he didn’t know what pushed him and that he never knew the
implication. This is somebody I brought to my house and he lived with me
for five years. I supported him to go to the best university and when
he finished, he got a good job and after he left, he thought that’s how
he could pay me back. Immigration didn’t know anything about what we
did; it was not that they were that smart but it was Tokunbo that
reported me. I don’t know what he told them but they were waiting for
me to return and they promptly arrested me even when I had travelled
with valid papers. Since I was travelling with valid documents, the best
they could have done was to charge me to court, not arrest me. They
asked me to tell them what I knew of Emmanuel Adegoke passport but I
insisted on speaking with my lawyer first. I wasn’t going to lie but I
needed legal advice.
So what then happened?
They kept me in a cold room for nine
hours. I got to America about 1pm on February 5, 2009 and until 11pm,
they didn’t allow me to come out of the extremely cold room. Let them
check their record very well. I could have died. I was forced to tell
them that I used Emmanuel Adegoke’s passport and from there, I was put
in detention for about four months until I saw a judge. The judge
checked and said I had a very clean record and that because of that she
said she was going to give me the minimum sentence, six months and I had
spent four months already. After the two months, I was released and
that was supposed to be the end of the case. On August 15, 2009, a
week after I was released, I received a call to pick up my green card
and passport at the ICE BWI Airport office on August 19, 2009, but
surprisingly I was rearrested by the same Officer Derrick who said they
made a mistake to have released me. I asked questions why I was arrested
and they told me I would have to see the judge again in three days.
They locked me up for months. While in detention at Worcester Detention
Centre, Snow Hill, Maryland, an ICE Officer, William Malone, told me I
could be released but it was going to cost me money. I told my lawyer
about it who reported to Senior ICE Officers. Malone was fired because
it was discovered that he asked me for bribe. We knew that he was a drug
dealer and an addict. I suspect that the authorities believed that we
knew too much about Malone and decided to torture me in particular.
Investigation was carried out during
which Officer Michelle Rawlings interrogated me and promised to get back
to me, which she never did. Afterwards I became the target for the
officers. I was hospitalised on July 12, 2010, at Atlantic Hospital for
sinusitis and body weakness but was discharged abruptly without adequate
treatment. I was maltreated by three officers, who flung me to an empty
steel bed and I put in a grievance report concerning the issue. In
August 2010 I was moved to Fredrick Detention Centre, Fredrick,
Maryland, and same aggression was repeated against my person. I was
feeling vibration on my bed and reported to the authority but no action
was taken.
“On December 3 I was invited by the
Chaplain Pastor John for Bible study with two other detainees. And
coming back from the Chaplain’s office I felt strange movement in my
umbilical cord and showed it to an inmate, Mr. Al. We quickly approached
the officers on duty to take me to the medical unit but instead I was
crushed to the floor by eight white officers and my pants was opened and
a chip, an electric devise used to invade a person’s privacy and gather
information about him and for the purpose of causing harm to his
person, was put in my anus. I screamed but no one could help me. I was
taken to another detention home where I was asked to remove all my
clothes and speak to a speaker which I later learnt is voice sensor and
as I am talking to you now, they are hearing me in America. Anywhere I
go in the world, through the chip in my body and speaking to the voice
sensor, they are monitoring me back there in America. What they inserted
in me is called electronic harassment and once it is in your body,
anywhere you go in the world, you are being monitored.
Why would they do that?
America would not want a scandal. They
know that we know too much about what goes on in the jail houses,
particularly about Officer Malone and they don’t want it out. They
believe that once they mess up with my brain, I would be rendered
useless but I give God the glory, I am okay. They inserted the chip on
December 3 2010 and since then, I’ve been feeling a lot of strange
movements in my body. I was arranged to see the psychologist, Ms
Jessica, who interviewed me and advised that I should be sent back to
the unit having seen nothing psychologically wrong with me, but ICE
refused. Also I was arranged to see the psychiatrist, Dr Brian Simms,
who said the same thing but I was still isolated. They even lied that I
was planning to kill myself and put me under suicide watch.
After all this, I made up my mind to
drop the case and go back to my country. They called the embassy and
they discussed at length because everyone at the embassy knew me because
I used to play for them. When I was given the phone, I opened up to
them and pleaded that the officers should be compelled to remove the
chip they inserted on me. One of them said, ‘nobody inserted anything on
Jacob’s body, we don’t have such a thing in America and it is even
illegal to do that.’ About two days after, they asked me dress up and I
thought they were taking me to Nigeria, they flew me to California, away
from my people and every contact that I had. I asked why I was in
California, a six-hour journey from Washington but I was lucky I spoke
to about two black people who I believed spoke about me to some sources.
They put me in the midst of retarded people and mentally challenged
people. I refused all medications to stay alive and in my senses. I was
forced to take about four shots but all I asked for was water in which I
prayed and drank so that all weapon fashioned against me would not
prosper. They moved me to a private treatment facility; still I refused
to cooperate and frustrated them even though they broke my back bone and
I told the doctor to respect the laws of America.
So, how did you get out?
I asked for voluntary deportation and
departure and I expected them to leave me alone without accompanying me
to Nigeria. On February 24, 2011, I was told to pack and prepare to go
back to Nigeria and I was happy. When we got to the airport in
California with two officers that were with me and were about to board
the plane, instead of passing through the scanner, they bypassed it but I
created a scene. They knew that the scanner would expose the chip
inside my body but I shouted and demanded to go through the scanner.
They felt embarrassed and agreed to go through the scanner; meanwhile,
they had spoken with the officer in charge to deactivate the machine as
soon as we were to be screened. I protested and asked them why they did
that. At the point of entry the plane, I sighted our board passes and
discovered that they wrote ‘Sullivan brain’ against my own. I later
learnt that it means that I should be treated on landing as a mentally
deranged person. But instead of flying straight to Nigeria, we flew
through Ghana. And when we landed in Ghana, our board passes were
missing and we flew without any paper to Lagos when they handed me over
to immigration. I made report that the two officers should be
interrogated and be asked to remove what they put in my system but they
were left to go.
So after they brought you, what happened?
There was nothing because I was not a
criminal. As I am talking to you, my passport and green card are still
with them in America. They have no right to do that. I wrote a letter to
the Foreign Affairs and they said they are investigating. I have
reported to the House of Representatives through the Diaspora Committee
headed by Abike Dabriri but I suspect they have been intimidated. I have
heard a lot of good things about Dabiri but I am sorry, this time
around, I am disappointed. Abike said they were going to summon the US
ambassador, she went there on her own and I don’t know what they
discussed. I had thought they would summon the American envoy to explain
why I was treated the way I was treated. She called me one day and said
she didn’t want to get involved and that I could do whatever I wanted
to do. I didn’t expect that from someone that is supposed to represent
me.
So what is happening to your health now?
The chip is still in my system and I
feel torture daily. I have 24/7 headache and the only time I feel any
relief is when a plane flies overhead or when I am under the shower. I
have written a letter to President Obama to deal with the bad eggs among
the immigrations. As I am speaking with you, I am under torture.
Is it possible to remove the chip?
It is possible medically but we don’t
have the technology in Nigeria. Many doctors don’t even know anything
about it, talk less of removing it.
What of your family?
They are still in America. All my five
properties have gone; I built two and bought three. I have lost all my
houses, my family have moved out of my property. I was gainfully
employed when I was rearrested. I was making $25 per hour; I was a
licensed realtor and at the same time I was working with a big hospital
in Baltimore. America is a land of opportunity but the people involved
in this are the people destroying American society.
- Punch
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