An Abuja High Court, on Thursday, granted Mike Ozekhome permission to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) for medical reasons for six weeks.
On February 27, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) arraigned Ozekhome and his co-defendant, Ponfa Useni, on 12 counts of forgery and impersonation, which stemmed from a messy battle over property ownership in the UK.
Ruling on the application for release of Ozekhome‘s passport, Justice Chizoba Oji ordered that he must return his International passport to the court on or before August 26.
It came to the judge’s knowledge on Tuesday that the prosecution had withheld and failed to deposit the defendants’ passports as part of the bail conditions the court granted in February.
This prompted the court to order the prosecution to present the passports in court unfailingly on Thursday.
The prosecution, adhering to the court ‘s instruction, produced the international passports of the defendants.
After the defendants confirmed that the passport produced belonged to him, the judge asked the prosecution counsel, C.L Asonta, to confirm again if there was no objection.
Asonta stated there was no objection but requested a condition: that Ozekhome should submit his international passport “within three working days upon his return”.
The court ruled, “having considered the motion and no objection, I hereby grant the request and temporary release of the first defendant’s international passport to enable him to go for his medical trip.”
Justice Oji held that Ozekhome’s six-week request starts from July 9 and ends on August 20.
Justice Oji then adjourned trial until September 28 for continuation.
Ponfa, the second defendant, is the son of the late Lt-Gen. Jeremiah Useni, who was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the military regime of the late Sani Abacha.
The prosecution in the charge alleged that the defendants conspired in 2020 and made “a false Nigerian International Passport No. A07535463 with the name Tali Shani.
The prosecution further alleged that Ozekhome helped Ponfa to impersonate Tali Shani in 2020.
EFCC claimed that together, they allegedly created a fake “Irrevocable Power of Attorney” to help Ozekhome claim the property.
They, however, denied all the allegations against them.
