NBA Welcomes Probe Into Ozekhome’s Link To Property Controversy In UK

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Anti-Corruption Committee has thrown its value down the determination of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to motorboat a probe into what it described arsenic a “messy spot controversy” involving Chief Mike Agbedor Abu Ozekhome, SAN, successful the United Kingdom.

According to a statement, the improvement stemmed from a determination by Judge Ewan Paton successful the First-Tier Tribunal Property Chamber Land Registration of the UK successful lawsuit fig REF/2023/0155: Tali Shani (Applicant) v. Chief Mike Agbedor Abu Ozekhome (Respondent), implicit spot astatine 79 Randall Avenue, London.

The connection signed by committee chairman, Prof. Babafemi A. Badejo, said the NBA Anti-Corruption Committee emphasised that the substance “raises respective improprieties that necessitate investigations connected the authenticity of the judgement that is wide successful circulation, arsenic good arsenic an probe of the actions of the Legal Practitioners earlier the Supreme Court of Nigeria who were mentioned successful the said proceedings.”

The statement, dated October 2, 2025, and copied to NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), and different main officers of the Association, further expressed anticipation that immoderate implicated ineligible practitioners would beryllium “promptly” referred to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).

According to the statement, investigations indispensable widen to “the alleged procurement of fake NIN, fraudulent presumption of an MTN number, fake ECOWAS passport, etc., each aimed astatine the failed creations of fake antheral and pistillate persons claiming to beryllium Tali Shani.”

It warned that specified fraudulent actions, reportedly involving collusion betwixt lawyers and civilian servants, “should pb to the transgression prosecutions of galore civilian servants who connived with lawyers to tarnish the sanction of Nigeria.”

The property connection recalled that the Royal Court of Jersey had successful 2022 decided connected a £1.9 cardinal lawsuit involving the Attorney-General v. Useni, wherever “Judge Paton had concluded that the precocious Lt. General Jeremiah Useni acquired the disputed spot nether questionable circumstances utilizing a sanction strikingly akin to that successful the existent case.”

“On the ground of the said determination successful the UK, we telephone connected the Attorney-General of the Federation to participate Nigeria’s involvement successful the said spot towards the anticipation of restitution,” the NBA Anti-Corruption Committee stated.

The Committee cautioned that Nigeria cannot spend a repetition of high-profile cases that were softly abandoned successful the past. “The credibility and sustainability of the ineligible assemblage successful Nigeria is astatine stake,” it declared.

In its recommendations, the NBA Anti-Corruption Committee urged the Attorney-General of the Federation to see Dr. George Ekpungu, Alternate Chairman of the nationalist NBA Anti-Corruption Committee, and Mr. Bayo Akinlade, president of Ikorodu Branch, successful the ongoing investigations.