X Factor reject Gamu pleads with Simon and Cheryl: Don't let me be deported, I will face a firing squad
  • 'My two brothers have had to be kept out school because they are so upset and it's all my fault'
  • Labour leader Ed Miliband 'feels sorry' for teenager

Fears: X Factor reject Gamu claims she will be punished if she is deported

Fears: X Factor reject Gamu claims she will be punished if she is deported
Rejected X Factor contestant Gamu Nhengu claimed today she will face the firing squad if she is forced to return to her native Zimbabwe.
The 18-year-old singer faces deportation after her mother wrongly claimed state benefits.
Speaking from a secret location in Scotland, she said her relatives back home have been approached by men she feared work for her country's ruthless President Robert Mugabe.
She told the News of the World: 'I've been in the public eye now and people there know I've fled Mugabe's regime. They will punish us if we go back. They're going to know where we are.
'There's a firing squad waiting for us there and they're putting me in front of it.'
The singer said she had not been contacted by show judges Simon Cowell or Cheryl Cole although she had heard Cowell's lawyers were 'trying to help.'
Last week it emerged Nhengu and her family faced being kicked out of the UK after the visa application of her mother Nokuthula Ngazana was turned down over the benefit claims.
Ms Ngazana's lawyer Frances Farrell said she planned to fight the decision at an immigration tribunal despite the family being told they have no right of appeal.
Officials have told them they must leave the country voluntarily or face deportation

Cheryl's picks: Cher Lloyd wowed the judges with her performance, while Katie Waissel's rendition of We Are The Champions earned her mixed reviews
Cheryl's picks: Cher Lloyd wowed the judges with her performance, while Katie Waissel's rendition of We Are The Champions earned her mixed reviews

Cheryl's picks: Cher Lloyd wowed the judges with her performance, while Katie Waissel's rendition of We Are The Champions earned her mixed reviews
She told the Sunday People she had spent the last week locked in her bedroom sobbing since the decision that wrecked her future.

More...


Insistent: Cheryl last night stood by her decision to put Katie, Cher and Rebecca through instead of Gamu

Insistent: Cheryl last night stood by her decision to put Katie, Cher and Rebecca through instead of Gamu
She said: 'I'm a total mess. People want to know if I'm OK - well, I'm definitely not OK.
'I don't understand. I'm a good person, what have I done to deserve this? I feel so responsible I have put my family through all this.
'My two brothers have had to be kept out of school because they are so upset and it's all my fault. If I hadn't applied for the X Factor none of this would ever have happened.'
She told the People she couldn't think straight and was not in a 'good place'.
Despite more than 250,000 people signing up to a Facebook group calling for Nhengu to be re-instated, the idea was rejected by X Factor producers.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband said he felt sorry for Gamu but that she should be dealt with like anybody else.
He told BBC1's The Politics Show: 'I feel very sorry for Gamu but I think you do have to have the proper rules enforced, you can't make an exception for someone because she was on the X factor, so I think the authorities have to make their own decisions in the normal way.'
Last night Gamu was not among the four wildcards picked to join the final 12 by the show's judges.

Contestants Treyc Cohen, Wagner, Paije Richardson and duo Diva Fever had their hopes of pop stardom revived after being selected for the live show.
Boy band FYD who covered Travie McCoy's Billionaire, kicked of the show,adding a reference to Cowell into the lyrics.
Next up was painter and decorator Matt Cardle, singing David Guetta's When Love Takes Over. Cowell said his version was 'genius' and would be 'a monster hit' if he released it as a single.
All eyes were on Cher Lloyd and Katie Waissel, who were the two girls picked ahead of Gamu despite poor judges' houses auditions.
Cher, 17, showed no sign of the throat problems which had left her in tears as she sang, rapped and danced her way through a version of The SOS Band's Just Be Good To Me.
Cowell, who turned 51 on Thursday, told her: 'You are exactly what we were looking for which is a new little star and you should be unpredictable, that's what pop music is all about.'
Katie, also impressed three of the four judges with her performance of Queen's We Are The Champions, despite her strange outfit, which included a multi-coloured helmet.
Grandparents: Chipo Ngazana and wife Ananias at their smallholding near Harare
Grandparents: Chipo Ngazana and wife Ananias at their smallholding near Harare
But Louis Walsh told her he thought she was 'more style than substance' at her first audition 'and I haven't really changed my mind.'
Treyc finally put the Gamu argument to bed - in Simon Cowell's mind at least - with a strong performance singing U2's One.
The mogul said Cheryl had done the right thing bringing her back and described her performance as the 'best vocal of the night'.
Voting lines opened at the end of last night's show and two acts will leave the show tonight, which will also feature performances by last year's winner Joe McElderry and American singer Usher.