Court Grants Mike Ozekhome Six‑Week Leave for UK Medical Trip, Adjourns Forgery Trial to September
The FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Thursday, granted senior lawyer Mike Ozekhome permission to travel for a medical trip to the United Kingdom for a period of six weeks.
The trial judge, Chizoba Oji, ruled that Mr Ozekhome must return his passport to the court on or before 26 August 2026.
The judge also adjourned Mr Ozekhome’s forgery and impersonation trial until 28 September.
On 27 February, the office of the AGF arraigned Mr 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 United Kingdom.
The judge subsequently granted bail to each of the duo in the sum of N10 million, with one surety each. The judge also ordered that the defendants’ international passports be submitted to the court.
On Tuesday, it came to the judge’s knowledge that the prosecution (office of the AGF) had withheld and failed to deposit the defendants’ passports as part of the bail conditions of the court-granted bail in February.
This prompted the judge to order the prosecution to present the passports in court unfailingly today (Thursday).
The prosecution, adhering to the judge’s instruction, produced the passports of the defendants.
After the defendants confirmed that the passports produced belonged to them, the judge asked the prosecution lawyer, C.L. Asonta, to confirm again if there was no objection.
Ms Asonta stated there was no objection but requested a condition: that Mr Ozekhome submit his passport “within three working days upon his return.”
Thereafter, the judge 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.”
The judge ordered that Mr Ozekhome’s six-week request starts from 9 July and ends on 20 August. The judge also adjourned the matter until 28 September.
