[2025] EWHC 687 (Fam)

Both applicants were born in Nigeria, DE is 67 years and AE is 38 years.

DE moved from Nigeria to Finland in 1980, acquired Finnish citizenship and in 1998 moved to England.

The applicants were married in Nigeria in 2010 and JE moved to England to join DE. According to the marriage certificate DE had been married before and was divorced. The applicants return to Nigeria every year, maintaining their strong connections there and in January 2013 purchased a property in Benin City which they use as their base when visiting Nigeria.

The applicants’ first child, AB, was born in 2013 and their second child, BC, was born the following year in 2014. Both children have settled status here. DE has indefinite leave to remain in the UK and JE is a British Citizen.

In 2013 DE’s niece, FI, gave birth to TE and TT in Nigeria. Their father is JI. Sadly, FI died in 2019, following complications in a subsequent pregnancy. JI was unable to care for TE and TT. They went to live with their maternal grandfather, DE’s younger brother. Tragically he died in 2020. Following that TE and TT were cared for by members of the wider family. Due to their concerns regarding TE and TT’s welfare the applicants decided to adopt them.

JI gave consent in an affidavit in May 2021 to the applicants adopting TE and TT. From then the children lived with JE’s younger sister in Benin City in Edo State and the applicants have been responsible for their care. This has included not only financial support but decisions about where they live, where they attend school and other matters such as medical treatment. They remained in regular, often daily, contact with TE and TT.

In July 2021 the applicants wrote to the Department of Education (DofE) in England requesting an exception to the special restrictions imposed by the Special Restrictions on Adoptions from Abroad (Nigeria) Order 2021. The response from the DofE Intercountry Adoption Team granted an exception and set out the next steps they would have to take, as well as summarising s 83 Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002). The applicants did not proceed with this route.

In November 2021 the applicants wrote to the Ministry of Social Development and Gender Issues (the Ministry) in Edo State, Nigeria asking to adopt TE and TT.

In August 2023 the applicants travelled to Nigeria with their children and spent almost a month with TE and TT.

On 11 September 2023 Chief Magistrate DI Adamaigbo (the Chief Magistrate) heard an ex parte motion in the Family Court of Edo State and granted leave to the applicants to make an application to adopt TE and TT. The court directed the Ministry to conduct the necessary enquiries and send the report within 60 days. This was completed by Mrs M Edogiawerie, social welfare officer, in September 2023 and recommends an adoption order is made.

On 5 December 2023 there was a further hearing before the Chief Magistrate. The record of the hearing sets out it was adjourned to secure the remote attendance of JI. The record of the hearing notes the exchanges between the Chief Magistrate and JI whereby he confirmed his consent to the adoption. The court also heard from TE who set out her wish to be adopted. The Chief Magistrate made an adoption order in favour of the applicants in the following terms:

“Applicants are granted an order to adopt the aforesaid juveniles –

[TE] (female) and [TT] (female) born on [date of birth] 2013

respectively and shall assume full parental rights, duties, obligations,

privileges and liabilities of natural parents over the said juveniles. In

addition, the Applicants are hereby grant the right to travel and live

with the juveniles in the United Kingdom or any other country of their

choice without restriction.”

At some point in 2024 the applicants invited the children to come to England for their birthday, stating they intended for them to return to Nigeria to continue their education as they had not been informed the adoption order had been made until the children arrived in England. Although the visa application stated it was for 26 days the applicants have said that was an error, they intended for the children to stay for 6 months.The children arrived here in February 2024 and started at school here in May 2024 after the applicants had been notified of the adoption decision in December 2023, which they state they were unaware of at the time of the visa application.

On 14 June 2024 the applicants made this application, which was issued on 28 June 2024. There is reference to a hearing on 25 July 2024, although no order is in the bundle. In a letter to the government legal department the applicants refer to them having been given permission by Judd J to make a Part 25 application for an expert in Nigerian law and directed the applicants to file and serve a witness statement. The Part 25 application was made on 9 September 2024. DE filed a statement in support of the application on 9 September 2024.

On 4 October 2024 Judd J approved the instruction of Dr Osita Mba as an expert in Nigerian law. Further directions were made on 11 October 2024 by Mr Lock KC, sitting as a deputy High Court Judge, when he made directions that joined the children as parties to the application, directed the applicants to file a copy of their Nigerian lawyers file and a statement addressing whether either or both of them retained their domicile of origin at the time of the Nigerian adoption order. Other directions included the filing of the Children’s Guardian’s report, the SSHD to set out their position and for the expert to be changed to Mr Badejo, a dual qualified English and Nigerian lawyer with experience of the family court in both jurisdictions who has given expert evidence in other reported cases. The final hearing was listed on 11 February 2025 with a time estimate of two days. That hearing was adjourned until today.

The Applicants second statement is dated 4 November 2024. The documents that were before the court in Nigeria have also been filed in these proceedings.

Mr Badejo’s report is dated 9 December 2024. In summary, his report deals with the following issues:

Ms Callaghan’s report outlines the detailed enquiries she has made. She met TE and TT with the applicants and their two children at the family home in November 2024, and separately met TE and TT at their school in January 2025. Both children clearly expressed their belief that the applicants are their parents and their wish is for their adoption to be recognised here.

In her report Ms Callaghan sets out her observations as follows:

“34.

Although they have not yet been living in England for a full year, [TT and [TE] have settled and integrated into the [applicants] family. They have developed close relationships with [the applicants], who they refer to as their mum and dad, and to [XA] and [JA] as their brothers. [TT] and [TE] knew of [DE], who is the uncle of their mother, and they had spoken to him, [JE] and their sons over video calls before they spent physical time together in Nigeria in August 2023. It would appear that [DE] was a significant family member to the girls when they were living with their mother, and they were aware that he lived in England.

35.

[TE] and [TT] consider themselves to be living with their family and they had no hesitation in telling me that [the applicants] are their ‘mum and dad’. The girls suffered two significant losses in their life, of their mother and then grandfather, after which

they had a period of moving around staying with relatives that they did not know. The girls did not talk of having a close relationship with their birth father. [TE] and [TT] told me that they did not have a mum and dad and that they wanted to be adopted by [the applicants]and for them to become their mum and dad, and for [AB] and [BC] to be their brothers. [TE] and [TT] are currently thriving in the care of [the applicants] and they presented as being part of a close family unit.

36.

[TE] and [TT] are children approaching adolescence, who are able to express themselves verbally and who were clear to me that they want to remain living with their ‘mum and dad’ and ‘brothers’. They have an understanding of the concept of adoption

relevant to their age, which is that they did not have a mum and dad in Nigeria and now they do. Although they had previously spent time living with paternal family members, they had not considered them parents, as they do [the applicants]. I observed this in their interactions within the family, which was their spontaneous rapport with their brothers and a warm and affectionate relationship with [the applicants]. They are living in a family unit where education is promoted and [TE] and [TT’s] achievements are celebrated and they have access to support and guidance, in the same way that [the applicant’s] birth children do.

37.

The children have experienced significant loss in their life and [the applicants] are aware that [TT] and [TE] need emotional support, particularly with regard to the loss of their mother. [JE] has photographs to share with the girls and she is waiting until the girls are ready to talk, the focus so far having been on getting [TT] and [TE] settled, ensuring that their health needs are met through visits to the optician and dentist and supporting them in respect of their education and transition to secondary school. It is my assessment that [the applicants] are ensuring that [TT] and [TE’s] physical, emotional and educational needs are met.

38.

[TE] and [TT] are Nigerian children, being brought up as Christians attending the local church. Both [applicants] were born in Nigeria, and they have maintained strong links with their family and have a home in Nigeria. Whilst [the applicant’s]birth children were born in England, they are being brought up within a home that maintains strong cultural ties to Nigeria and it is where [the applicants] consider to be home, and it is where they will return when they retire. [TE] and [TT] benefit from living within

a family that celebrates their Nigerian culture and heritage and [JE], in particular is well placed to support them as young women growing up in England. Both girls told me that their mum had gone to university, and it was evident that [TE] and [TT] have aspirations in respect of having careers in the future, which I believe [the applicants] will support.

39.

Whilst [TT] and [TE] did not talk in any detail with me about the neglect that [DE] reports they had previously suffered when their father was overseeing their care through his extended family, they did tell me about moving around a lot, their father not being present and of them not having a mum and dad. The children have undoubtedly suffered emotionally through the loss of their mother and maternal grandfather. [The applicants] had provided financial support toward their care after the children’s mother died in 2019 which continued for two years whilst they stayed with a paternal relative. Upon discovering that [TT] and [TE] were not being cared for appropriately, with their birth father’s agreement, [the applicants] took over care and control for [TE] and [TT] and arranged for [JE’s] sister to provide day-to-day care until they could secure an Adoption Order, and arrange for the girls to join them in England. [TE] and [TT] were clear that they had maintained contact via video calls with ‘daddy’ and spoken with [JE] and their two sons prior to them all spending time

together in Nigeria in August 2023.”

Ms Callaghan concludes that recognition of the Nigerian adoption ‘will provide them with emotional and legal security and stability’.