The United Kingdom (UK) has revoked the visas of two Nigerian men who secured entry into the country through the global talent visa route using forged evidence.
Britain’s global talent visa route is an immigration pathway
designed to attract highly skilled and promising professionals in fields such
as digital technology, arts and culture, academia, research, science,
engineering, medicine, humanities, and social sciences to live and work in the
UK.
Applicants do not need a pending job offer and have the
flexibility to work for employers, become self-employed, or set up their own
businesses within their endorsed field.
A BBC investigation found two Nigerian men — Silva Ndifon
and Adanu Emmanuel Okoko — posed as fine art photographers to obtain talent
visas. They are now believed to be living in the UK.
Their alleged deception first came to light when Molara
Wood, an art critic, discovered articles reviewing their work in the Nigerian
Tribune that carried her byline, despite the fact she had not written them.
Artists applying for the global talent visa are required to
provide at least two examples of recent press coverage reviewing or profiling
their work.
Wood said the reviews attributed to her were of poor
quality, as were the artworks.
“It is writing that I would not want associated with me,”
Wood told BBC. “The images were not worthy of comment.”
BBC noted that the Nigerian Tribune said it had identified a
“staff member who had posted the articles on our website without
authorisation”.
The newspaper removed the reviews following Wood’s
complaint. The staff member reportedly said an outside had supplied the article
but denied receiving payment.
“There is a real problem whereupon fake articles are being
implanted onto newspaper websites using the bylines of reputable culture
journalists,” Wood added.
Wood first flagged the false art reviews on her X page in
March.
“Who is Silva Ndifon? Crazy thing, last night I discovered
that in March 2022, a “review” of Ndifon’s “art” was published in
@nigeriantribune– with my byline!!! Never heard of Ndifon until last night. I
didn’t write this. This is fraud, grand deception, a confidence trick,” she
posted.
A separate review of Okoko’s work, also falsely attributed
to Wood, was published in 2023.
She told the BBC that other critics had also experienced
similar incidents.
Ndifon’s work has received significant media coverage in
other publications. However, it does not feature the kind of fine-art
photography described in the article that Wood did not write.
Okoko, on the other hand, appears to have little to connect
him to photography, or any other kind of art.
The BBC said it contacted the Home Office with findings of
the investigation, and the men’s visas are now understood to be in the process
of being revoked.
NIGERIANS AMONG HIGHEST RECIPIENTS OF GLOBAL TALENT VISA
THROUGH ARTS
Many Nigerians have secured the UK’s global talent visa
through artistic routes, placing the country among the leading sources of
recipients.
According to The Telegraph, Nigerians have made 729
applications across artistic global talent categories – dance, fashion, music,
film and TV, theatre, combined arts and visual arts — since 2019, second only
to the US, with 977.
Only 59 percent of them have been endorsed – the lowest rate
among the countries listed apart from Ghana.
However, in 2025, Nigerians topped the list of applicants
and endorsements under the global talent visa route for literature, ahead of
countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia.
In total, more than 5,000 applications have been submitted
by people of all nationalities since 2019, with 3,600 endorsements issued by
Arts Council England.
LARGER FRAUD NETWORK
The BBC investigation found companies offering to help
migrants pose as talented artists and technology experts to submit fraudulent
UK visa applications under a fast-track immigration scheme.
A consultant with a London-based company told the BBC’s
undercover reporter – who posed as a potential client – that his firm could
supply artwork produced in China and arrange exhibitions, media coverage and
letters of recommendation.
He said none of the clients who had taken the “fully
inclusive” package, which cost more than £100,000, had ever been refused a
visa.
For an additional £28,000, the reporter could also secure a
Chinese art award sponsored by Forbes magazine to strengthen her application.
As part of the arrangement, the consultant said his
colleagues could pose as the purported client at gallery openings and network
on her behalf, adding that officials processing visa applications “don’t look
at photographs”.
He said the process would take at least two years. The fully
inclusive visa service cost £98,000, with an additional £1,120 postage fee to
ship up to 15 works from Beijing to London.
iCareer, the company, denied offering visa services,
claiming the consultant had left its employment before speaking to the
undercover reporter.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com