Man granted citizenship after his death
Mr Ayanwole, 41, died on November 23, three days after he was beaten at a taxi rank on Dublin’s Pearse St following an argument.
The father-of-one, with his wife Olusola, applied for Irish citizenship in 2009. Just two weeks ago, the family received letters from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration service confirming that both had finally been successful.
However, for Olusola to secure her citizenship she must pay the €950 fee — something that will be hard to do now that her family’s income has been reduced due to her husband’s death.
Unless that sum of money is paid within a certain timeframe it will be raised.
Reacting to the letters granting her and her husband citizenship, Olusola said: “I am an Irish now and my son is an Irish, Moses now is an Irish... It was so painful that after his passing he got his citizenship.
“The only thing is that I thank God and I thank the Irish people that they still remember him.”
She said she had informed the authorities that her husband had died but the application was still granted.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that while it did not comment on individual cases, it regretted any further distress caused to the Ayanwole family.
A file has been sent by gardaí investigating the circumstances of Moses’s death to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
However, Olusola said justice in Ireland “moved too slowly” and said she wants the perpetrator to be arrested.
Moses’s mother, Felicia Ogun, is staying with her daughter-in-law and grandson, Joshua, at their home in west Dublin ahead of the expected sitting of an inquest into her son’s death at the Coroner’s Court.
“He wanted to be where he wanted to be, to be something, to support his family,” Felicia said. “They took all his dreams away from him.”
She said: “It has been very difficult, especially the young one, the son. Every day, every day here, we have to comfort him.”
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