A Nigerian man has been taken into immigration custody in the United States after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, following an allegation that he exposed himself in a residential street while carrying campaign material for a Democratic congressional candidate.
Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe was arrested on 27 September in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania. Police said he was found in a vehicle with his trousers down, in a neighbourhood near a park where residents, including children, were present. He was charged with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.
Officers said he told them he was waiting to hand out flyers for Janelle Stelson, the Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. Campaign material was found in the vehicle. He is also reported to have told police that he did not know it was unlawful to be exposed inside a car.
At a hearing on 30 September, prosecutors withdrew the indecent exposure charge and one disorderly conduct count. Igbojekwe pleaded guilty to the remaining disorderly conduct charge, a third degree misdemeanour.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him on 1 October. The Department of Homeland Security said he was lawfully admitted to the United States in June 2017, that his authorised stay expired in November 2019, and that he was later granted deferred action in September 2021.
ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall said it was unbelievable that Stelson would employ an illegal alien on a congressional campaign, and described the conduct as exposing himself in public. The department said he had been working as a canvasser for the campaign at the time of the incident.
Stelson’s campaign manager, Alma Baker, rejected that account. She said Igbojekwe is not, and has never been, employed by the campaign, that staff had not heard of him before the arrest, and that an illegal immigrant who committed a crime should be deported. Federal Election Commission records show no payment from the campaign to him.
By A.Ikechukwu
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