Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, on Tuesday, filed amended charges against senior lawyer Mike Ozekhome, hours after withdrawing the initial charge which alleged forgery, impersonation and other offences connected with an ownership battle over a controversial London property.
Working for and on behalf of the AGF, the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Rotimi Oyedepo SAN, filed 12 counts against Mr Ozekhome and a co-defendant, Ponfa Useni, accusing them of forgery, impersonation, and unlawful acquisition of property in the United Kingdom.
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) filed the earlier case before the FCT High Court in Abuja on 16 January.
However, the re-arraignment could not proceed on Tuesday as scheduled, as Mr. Oyedepo SAN, announced the withdrawal of the earlier charge, prompting the judge to strike them out.
Mr. Oyedepo did not give any specific reason for withdrawing the charges, other than saying it would enable the AGF to strengthen his review of all the cases being handled by all the prosecuting agencies.
But hours later, the AGF refiled the case before the same court, the FCT High Court.
The amended version of the case filed by the AGF office raised the number of counts from 3 to 12 and joined another defendant, Ponfa Useni, to Mr. Ozekhome.
According to the amended charge, Messrs Ozekhome and Ponfa Useni conspired in 2020 alongside the late Jeremiah Useni, a retired Army General who served as the FCT Minister during the regime of Nigeria’s late dictator, Sani Abacha, and made “a false Nigerian International Passport No. A07535463 with the name Tali Shani, and purported same to have been issued by the Nigeria Immigration Service” to claim a property in the United Kingdom.
Similarly, the prosecution charged Mr Ozekhome and Ponfa Useni of “using the false passport to facilitate the claim of the property.