The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has confirmed that a Nigerian passport presented as evidence by Mike Ozekhome (SAN) in a British property tribunal was forged, leading to criminal charges filed by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
According to a report by Premium Times, the NIS confirmed that passport booklet number A07535463, certified and submitted to support Mr. Ozekhome’s claim of owning a house in North London, was never legitimately issued.
The agency disclosed that the booklet was reported stolen, never personalised with holder data, and does not exist in its official Electronic Management System.
Preliminary findings indicated that personal data was “unlawfully superimposed on it with numerous inconsistencies on the data page.”
This document had been admitted as genuine evidence by Judge Ewan Paton of the UK’s First-tier Tribunal in a September 2025 judgment, where he noted he had no evidence to find it forged. The NIS authentication now directly undermines that finding.
Based on this revelation, the ICPC filed a three-count charge against Mr. Ozekhome at the Federal High Court in Abuja on 16 January. The charges, filed by Ngozi Onwuka of the ICPC High Profile Prosecution Department, include receiving property through corrupt means, making a false document, and dishonestly using a false document.
The first count alleges that in August 2021, Mr. Ozekhome received House 79 Randall Avenue, London, as a gift from one Mr. Shani Tali in a transaction constituting a felony. The second and third counts pertain directly to the passport, accusing him of forging it and knowingly using the forged document to support his property ownership claim.
The case stems from a complex property dispute where Mr. Ozekhome applied to transfer the London property into his name, asserting it was a gift from a client, Tali Shani, in appreciation for legal services. His application was contested by another party claiming to be the true owner.
The UK tribunal, in its verdict, ruled that the property was secretly bought in 1993 by the late General Jeremiah Useni using a false identity and that the Tali Shani presented by Mr. Ozekhome had no legal title to it, thus could not have gifted it.
The judge rejected Mr. Ozekhome’s narrative as a “contrived story.” With the NIS confirming the passport’s illegitimacy and the ICPC pursuing criminal charges, the matter has escalated beyond the civil tribunal, posing significant legal challenges for the senior lawyer.
Discussion about this post