The proposed criminal trial of Chief , SAN, arising from the disputed ownership and transfer of the property known as 79 Randall Avenue, London NW2, raises profound concerns about prosecutorial discretion, abuse of process, and the misdirection of criminal justice powers.
A careful, dispassionate reading of the ruling of the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), London, delivered by Mr. Ewan Paton, reveals a troubling disconnect between the findings of that tribunal and the decision of Nigerian authorities to arraign Chief Ozekhome, SAN, while leaving the principal architects of fraud, Mohammed Edewor Esq, Esq, Nicholas Ekhorutomwen, Ayodele Damola, and Anakwe Obasi untouched.
This opinion proceeds from one central proposition: the prosecution of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, is unsupported by the tribunal’s findings, legally unsustainable, and amounts to persecution rather than prosecution, while the failure to prosecute the above named persons represents a grave miscarriage of justice.
Contrary to sensational media interpretations, the London Property Tribunal did not accuse Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, of committing any criminal offence. The tribunal’s decision was fundamentally civil in nature and concerned with the question of title to the property, not criminal culpability.
In summary, the tribunal found that:
1. “Ms Tali Shani” the Applicant never existed.
2. The entire claim brought in her name was fraudulent, fictitious, and an abuse of process.
3. The documents tendered to prove her identity—including medical records, a Nigerian national identity slip, an Ecowas travel document, a mobile phone bill, a death certificate, and an obituary—were riddled with contradictions and forgeries.
4. The mobile phone bill allegedly belonging to “Ms Tali Shani” was traced by a Nigerian police officer to belong to Mohammed Edewor, Esq, who was acting as her counsel.
5. The tribunal concluded unequivocally that the case was pursued “in the name of a person who never existed” and involved forgery and deception.
On these facts alone, the tribunal’s strongest condemnation was directed not at Chief Ozekhome, SAN, but at the creation of a fictitious claimant and the systematic fabrication of evidence—a scheme in which Mohammed Edewor Esq, Nicholas Ekhorutomwen, Ayodele Damola,and Anakwe Obasi, played a central and inescapable role.
On the side of Chief Ozekhome, SAN, the tribunal made findings that are materially different in character and legal consequence.
The tribunal rejected his narrative that the property was lawfully transferred to him in 2021 by Mr. Tali Shani, purportedly as a gift in gratitude for extensive legal services. It found that:
1. Mr. Tali Shani, though a real person who testified for Chief Ozekhome, with a genuine Nigerian passport, did not purchase the property in 1993 and had no legal title to transfer to Ozekhome.
2. The property was in fact purchased in 1993 by the late General Jeremiah Useni, who had used aliases, including “Tali Shani,” to register assets.
3. Consequently, the purported transfer to Chief Ozekhome, SAN, failed for want of title.
Crucially, the tribunal did not find that Chief Ozekhome forged documents, created false identities, corrupted officials, or knowingly engaged in fraud. At worst, the tribunal found his testimony implausible, inconsistent, and unproven, and therefore rejected it. That is a far cry, both in law and logic, from criminal culpability. Rejection of evidence in a civil tribunal does not metamorphose into proof of crime.
The most damning findings of the tribunal relate squarely to the conduct of Mohammed Edewor, Esq, and those acting with him as named above. The record is replete with extraordinary facts:
1. A claimant who never appeared before the tribunal despite repeated adjournments because she never existed.
2. False claims that she was hospitalised, followed by false claims that she had died—first in hospital, then in a road accident.
3. A purported death certificate inconsistent with sworn affidavits, all emanating from Ayodele Damola.
4. An obituary bearing a “Sunday” thanksgiving service on a date that was demonstrably a Saturday.
5. Obasi, a witness, who claimed the funeral photographer was “killed by bandits two days after the burial.”
6. A mobile phone account allegedly belonging to the deceased but registered in the name of her own lawyer, Mr Edewor, Esq.
These are not mere inconsistencies; they are classic indicia of deliberate fraud, identity fabrication, and perversion of the course of justice. The tribunal itself lamented that such an elaborate fraud could not have been executed without the corruption of Nigerian officials.
Against this backdrop, the decision of the ICPC, an agency statutorily empowered to investigate public officers, to charge Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, a private legal practitioner who has never held public office, is legally baffling. It is even more disturbing that:
1. Mohammed Edewor, Esq, one Nicholas Ekhorutomwen, Ayodele Damola, and Obasi Anakwe remain free and uncharged, despite the tribunal’s explicit findings connecting them to forged evidence.
2. The estate of General Jeremiah Useni, identified by the tribunal as the true purchaser and beneficial owner, is untouched. So why Ozekhome who was not connected to the purchase of the property in 1993 and so did not know about its history until he was gifted same in 2021 for legal services rendered to Mr Tali Shani and General Useni?
Any fair-minded reader of the tribunal’s ruling would reasonably conclude that if any criminal investigation was warranted, it should focus on the fabrication of “Ms Tali Shani” and the forged documents, not on a recipient of a failed property transfer who relied on his client’s representations.
The withdrawal of the ICPC when the matter came up on 26th January 2026, and the subsequent takeover by the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, only deepen the perception that this prosecution is being sustained without jurisdictional or evidential foundation for Ozekhome ‘s reputational damage.
Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, is a renowned human rights lawyer, often described as “the people’s lawyer,” who has spent decades of his life challenging executive excesses and defending unpopular causes. When the machinery of the state is deployed against such a figure, in defiance of the very judgment relied upon, the charge of persecution cannot be lightly dismissed.
That dozens of eminent lawyers, led by Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, and including no fewer than fifteen Senior Advocates of Nigeria, have volunteered to defend Chief Ozekhome is itself a silent but powerful indictment of the prosecution.
The honourable and constitutionally appropriate course is clear. The Attorney General of the Federation should Immediately discontinue the criminal proceedings against Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, for want of legal basis and in the overriding public interest and in the interest of justice, direct a thorough criminal investigation and prosecution of Mohammed Edewor, Esq, Nicholas Ekhorutomwen, Ayodele Damola, and Obasi Anakwe whose conduct, as exposed by the London Property Tribunal, strikes at the heart of legal ethics, judicial integrity, and international confidence in Nigeria’s justice system.
Justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. To persist in the trial of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, while ignoring the tribunal’s explicit findings of forgery and deception against others, is to convert prosecutorial power into an instrument of oppression.
In law, conscience, and common sense, this is persecution, not prosecution and it must stop now, and this on the next adjourned date.
Mazi Echika Ejido is an Abuja based lawyer, activist and Secretary of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Nyanya-Karu Branch Abuja. He can be reached on echikachina@gmail.com or 08068454501
