Case: 17-12656 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 1 of 21 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ Nos. 17-12656; 18-12627 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A206-305-847 NDUDI ADU, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petitions for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (September 18, 2019) Before JILL PRYOR, NEWSOM and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 17-12656 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 2 of 21 Ndudi Benson Adu seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) final order of removal following its denial of his claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Adu also asks us to review the BIA’s denial of his motion to reopen proceedings and has filed a separate motion to remand the case to the BIA to consider new evidence. For the following reasons, we grant Adu’s petition for review of the BIA’s final order on his asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT claims and deny as moot his motions. I. BACKGROUND A. Factual Background Adu is a Nigerian citizen and a Pentecostal pastor. As part of his ministry, in July 2013, Adu traveled to northern Nigeria to preach. In sermons, Adu criticized Boko Haram, a terrorist organization in Nigeria comprised of radical Muslims. Adu was then attacked by six armed Boko Haram members who kidnapped him and took him to a nearby house. They beat him, cut his left arm with a knife, pointed a gun at him, detained him, warned him to stop preaching Christianity, and threatened to kill him. The Boko Haram captors eventually released Adu, who went to the hospital and was treated with hydrogen peroxide, bandages, and painkillers. 2 Case: 17-12656 Date Filed: 09/18/2019 Page: 3 of 21 When Adu was released from the hospital, he relocated within northern Nigeria. His relocation did not deter Boko Haram. Approximately one week later, Boko Haram members found Adu. They beat on his door, told him that he had been warned not to preach Christianity, and said that they had come to kill him. They told him that they would break down the door and kill him. Adu escaped through a window and fled to Lagos, in southern Nigeria, the next morning. Back in Lagos, Adu’s senior pastor reported the incident to the local police, who were unable to identify his attackers. According to the police report, Adu’s church, through its senior pastor Oluwarotimi Ibiyeme Johnson, reported that Adu had been attacked twice by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. The church reported to the police that “the Boko Haram sect ha[d] marked [Adu] out for destruction.” AR at 1253.1 The police report further noted that officers advised Johnson to take all necessary measures to ensure that Adu was not seen by Boko Haram anywhere in Nigeria. Following that advice, the church then directed Adu to attend a September 2013 conference at a church in the United States. Adu was given a two-year visa to ...
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