Mike Ozekhome SAN Used Fake Passport to Claim UK Property- Nigerian Immigration Service officer, Akim Aridegbe
By Ranti Thomas
A Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) officer, Akim Aridegbe, principal staff officer to the comptroller-general, told the FCT High Court in Abuja on Friday that a passport presented by senior lawyer Mike Ozekhome in a London property ownership case is fake.
Mr Aridegbe said the passport, in the name Tali Shani and numbered A07535463, “was not issued by the Nigerian Immigration Service; it is not in our database…the passport belonging to Tali Shani is fake.”
He gave the evidence during the impersonation and forgery trial of Ozekhome and his co-accused, Ponfa Useni, the son of the late Jeremiah Useni, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the Sani Abacha regime.
The prosecution alleged that Ozekhome and Useni conspired in 2020 to use the false passport to claim a property in the United Kingdom and created a fake Irrevocable Power of Attorney to facilitate the transfer. Both defendants have denied the allegations.
Mr Aridegbe explained to the court that the Nigerian passport system generates records and links them to the National Identification Number (NIN) before final production, but there was no record of Tali Shani in the NIS database.
The witness also confirmed that letters from the EFCC were used to authenticate the passports and that the documents submitted in the case were officially recorded as evidence.
The court adjourned the matter until 15 April for further cross-examination of the witness.