An Abuja High Court on Thursday granted Mike Ozekhome permission to travel to the United Kingdom for medical reasons for six weeks.
Recall that 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 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 the 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’ passport 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 the trial until Sept 28 for
continuation.
Ponfa, the second defendant, is the son of the late Lt-Gen.
Jeremiah Useni, who was the 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.
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