Nigeria Immigration Service Confirms Document Submitted by Ozekhome to British Court Is Forged

New evidence has surfaced indicating that a crucial document submitted by renowned Nigerian attorney Mike Ozekhome to a tribunal in London, claiming ownership of a property in North London, is counterfeit. This revelation has set the stage for criminal charges against the distinguished advocate.

Ironically, the document was deemed genuine by the British court originally, as there was no substantiation to suggest otherwise. However, the relevant issuing authority in Nigeria has now verified that the document is indeed fake.

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has asserted that a Nigerian passport provided as part of the evidence in this significant property dispute was never validly issued.

In a correspondence sent to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the NIS explained that the passport booklet numbered A07535463, which was shown to support Mr. Ozekhome’s claim of ownership, had never been put to use because it was defective, and consequently, no holder’s record exists in its database.

The agency further noted, “The referenced booklet was reported stolen and has never been personalized. As such, it does not feature in the Service’s Electronic Management System, and no Certified True Copy exists.”

Preliminary conclusions drawn by the NIS highlighted that the passport contained personal information that had been unlawfully transcribed onto it, with numerous discrepancies noted on the data page, raising concerns about serious irregularities involved in its production.

Judge Ewan Paton of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) had previously accepted the passport as authentic during proceedings in the UK. In his judgment delivered in September 2025, Judge Paton remarked that an individual named Tali Shani was indeed a real person and had provided evidence under that name.

“A certified copy of an official Nigerian passport was presented both to the Land Registry and this Tribunal, stating that Mr. Tali Shani was born on April 2, 1973. I lack the evidence, or any sufficient basis, to assert that this document is forged, unlike the various dubious forgeries submitted by the ‘Applicant’,” the judge had articulated.

Nevertheless, the findings from the NIS have now confirmed that the passport is fraudulent.

Criminal Charges Filed

Drawing upon the findings from the NIS, the ICPC has initiated criminal charges against Mr. Ozekhome at the Federal High Court in Abuja over accusations of acquiring property through corrupt means and employing forged documents.

The charges were submitted on January 16 by Ngozi Onwuka from the ICPC High Profile Prosecution Department, following widespread calls for the commission to launch prosecution against the senior lawyer.

Court documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES reveal that Mr. Ozekhome confronts three counts of criminal offenses.

The first count alleges that during August 2021, he directly received House 79 Randall Avenue, London, supposedly given to him by Mr. Tali Shani in a transaction categorized by the ICPC as a felony under the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act of 2000.

The second count accuses the senior advocate of creating a fraudulent document, specifically a Nigerian passport numbered A07535463 in the name of Mr. Tali Shani, with the intent to substantiate a claim of ownership for the London property. This charge falls under the Penal Code of the Federal Capital Territory.

In the third count, Mr. Ozekhome is charged with dishonestly utilizing the allegedly false passport as legitimate to validate the ownership claim when he had reason to doubt the document’s authenticity.

The Property Dispute

The controversy originated in August 2021 when Mr. Ozekhome submitted an application to transfer ownership of the property located at 79 Randall Avenue, Neasden, into his name, alleging that it was gifted to him by an individual claiming to be Tali Shani, who purported to be the property's owner, as gratitude for his legal assistance.

However, he confessed that he did not become acquainted with Mr. Shani until January 2019, which was over two decades following the disputed acquisition, and lacked any personal insight into how the property was bought or operated in preceding years.

The Nigerian lawyer informed the tribunal that after being introduced to Mr. Shani in 2019, he provided various legal services for him, from advisement to court representation, and claimed that the property was later conferred to him in 2021 as a gesture of thanks.

He depicted Mr. Shani as an affluent farmer and entrepreneur engaged in cattle rearing, groundnut farming, mango cultivation, and real estate, asserting that Mr. Shani regarded him as a paternal figure.

Mr. Ozekhome refrained from presenting evidence of the alleged legal services due to client confidentiality constraints. He also denied having paid the £500,000 noted in Mr. Shani’s accounts, asserting that the transfer was entirely gratuitous and that the worth of his professional services surpassed any financial compensation.

In accordance with the verification requirements established by the Land Registry, Mr. Ozekhome presented a copy of a Nigerian passport, authenticated as a genuine copy by an English solicitor.

The passport indicated that Tali Shani (male) was born on April 2, 1973, in Plateau State, Nigeria, suggesting he would have been 20 years old at the time the property title was recorded. No birth certificate copy was submitted.

Mr. Ozekhome’s application faced opposition in September 2022 from Westfields Solicitors, claiming to represent “Ms. Tali Shani,” who asserted herself as the registered property owner since 1993.

She contended that she had never authorized any transfer and was “outraged” by Mr. Ozekhome’s application.

Mr. Shani testified in court

Central to the case, along with Mr. Ozekhome and the alleged Ms. Shani, was the late Jeremiah Useni, a retired army general and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory under military Head of State, Sani Abacha.

To back Mr. Ozekhome, the purported Mr. Shani claimed ownership since November 16, 1993.

Mr. Shani stated in the Tribunal that, “I appointed General Jeremiah T. Useni as my Agent/Manager regarding the property, as I am a very busy businessman not ordinarily residing in the UK.” He described General Useni as his “property manager” and close associate with whom he had a significant enterprise relationship.

He further asserted, “I alone, and no one else, maintained control over the original title deeds and documents for 79 Randall Avenue, which I have since transferred to Chief Ozekhome, who now possesses them.”

However, testimony from the late Mr. Useni contradicted this narrative.

Before his passing, Mr. Useni appeared in court via video link in 2024. Contrary to Mr. Ozekhome’s defense, Mr. Useni stated plainly, “I owned it. I bought the property. It is my property.”

Although the house was registered in the name of “Tali Shani,” records displayed that Mr. Useni could not elucidate why the property was recorded under that name. He had encountered Mr. Tali Shani only seven or eight years earlier and stated, when queried about Shani's relation to the property, that the answer was “Nothing.”

Tribunal’s Verdict

In its decision, the tribunal articulated that the case was constructed around a web of deception, impersonation, and forged documents, ultimately determining Mr. Useni was the legitimate purchaser of the property from 1993.

Judge Paton from the UK Tribunal ruled that the property was secretly acquired by the late General Jeremiah Useni in 1993, using a fraudulent identity.

Documentation presented to the tribunal corroborated that the acquisition was completed under a false identity named “Philips Bincan,” a pattern that aligns with findings by the Royal Court of Jersey in a separate 2022 case that disclosed Mr. Useni’s pattern of using pseudonyms like “Tim Shani” to disguise assets.

Nevertheless, the tribunal dismissed Mr. Ozekhome’s recount. “Mr. Tali Shani… did not purchase this property himself in 1993, and thus held no title to transfer to the respondent,” the judge concluded.

The tribunal ultimately found that Mr. Ozekhome’s defense was an “invented narrative… concocted to create a believable explanation” for the 2021 transfer.

The tribunal affirmed that since Mr. Shani held no legal title, he could not transfer the property to Mr. Ozekhome. Therefore, ownership of the property, the judge reiterated, now lies with whomever successfully administers probate over Mr. Useni’s estate in the UK.

Mr. Useni, who passed away in France in January 2025, was a powerful figure within the Sani Abacha regime and was viewed as a possible successor to assume head of state following Abacha’s death in June 1998.