The manager of Suya Joint, a popular Nigerian restaurant in Roxbury, has been granted asylum status after he was detained by immigration agents in June.
Paul Dama was driving to church on Father’s Day when he was pulled over and detained, according to Cecelia Lizotte, Dama’s sister and the restaurant’s chef and owner.
On Tuesday, Judge Yul-Mi Cho granted Dama asylum from his home country of Nigeria after being kidnapped by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, and facing political persecution, according to his lawyer. Dama is immediately awaiting release from custody from the Strafford County Department of Corrections in Dover, N.H., according to a public ICE database.
Lizotte said the news was a “sigh of relief” and “answered prayers” for her family.
“This is immediately another day that we don’t have him,” according to Lizotte, who’s uncertain when her brother will be released.
Dama left Nigeria, where he worked as a journalist, and joined his sister in the U.S. in 2019. Lizotte said he was kidnapped and later released by Boko Haram before fleeing to the U.S. for safety.
“He described in detail the attack, and how he has not gotten the protection of the police or the government because of this attack,” his attorney, Abeba Attles, said. Dama was also an activist advocating against corruption, Attles said, which made him a target of the government.
Dama has authorization to work legally in the country, his sister said, and first applied for asylum when he moved in 2019.
Katie Muchnick can be reached at katie.muchnick@globe.com.
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