A Nigerian who accidentally slashed the throat of a promising footballer is reportedly costing the UK taxpayer more than £100,000 fighting deportation to his country of birth.
Michael Ematuwo, 20, has made four different attempts to stop deportation back to Africa since 2012.
He was jailed for six years in 2009 for killing Tottenham and Watford trialist Jahmal Mason-Blair during a fight in Hackney, London.
The Nigerian was waving around a flick knife to ward off another teenager when he slit the throat of his friend Jahmal, who was playing peacekeeper.
The 17-year-old had trials Tottenham, Watford and Reading football clubs before his life was tragically cut short.
Ematuwo is currently housed in an immigration centre which costs the taxpayer around £100 a day, according to the Sun.
One of his appeals of alleged human rights breaches was thrown out, but his lawyers have since made a fresh appeal on at least six new grounds not linked to human rights laws to try to keep him in the UK.
The alleged new grounds include denying police evidence Ematuwo had been a gang member and questioning the “viability” of him returning to live in Nigeria.
This has resulted in legal fees and staff costs fighting Ematuwo’s case soaring to more than £100,000.
Ematuwo pleaded guilty to manslaughter of his friend Jahmal, who he met while playing for Boreham Wood Football Club, in Hertfordshire – the club for which Yakubu Aiyegbeni recently played a match.
The judge said he accepted that Ematuwo, then 13, had not intended to harm anyone with the knife.
The court was told the defendant was born in Nigeria and had been sent to live with an aunt by his father.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Foreign nationals who commit crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.
“We will use every available power to take action against those foreign criminals who cause significant problems in the UK, including those from countries within the European Union.
“All foreign national offenders given a custodial sentence are considered for deportation.”
