London Property Charges: AGF takes over senior lawyer Ozekhome’s trial, court reschedules arraignment

The FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Monday rescheduled the arraignment of Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on fraud charges that centred on a London property ownership transfer saga.

Trial judge Peter Kekemeke pushed the arraignment to 24 February to allow a clean transfer of the case file from the ICPC to the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice.

Mr Kekemeke adjourned the arraignment at the instance of the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, a SAN, who represented the AGF, Lateef Fagbemi.

Mr Oyedepo told the court that AGF’s decision to take over the trial is in line with Section 174 of the Nigerian constitution and to “ensure the highest level of diligent prosecution and to enhance public confidence in criminal justice administration.”

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The Head, High Profile Prosecution Department of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Osuebeni Akpomesingha, did not object to this but promised to cooperate with the AGF’s office in the alleged fraud trial of Mr Ozekhome.

Kanu Agabi, a former AGF and minister of justice who is a SAN, appeared as Mr Ozekhome’s lead defence lawyer.

Judge Kekemeke rescheduled the planned arraignment to 24 February.

ICPC’s charges

On 16 January, the ICPC charged Mr Ozekhome with three counts of felony, fraud, and forgery over allegations of receiving a London property through corrupt means and using forged documents.

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The charges, filed on 16 January by Ngozi Onwuka of the ICPC’s High Profile Prosecution Department, follow a damning September 2025 judgement by a London property tribunal that linked the 68-year-old lawyer to “fraud and forged” documents in a dispute over a North London house.

According to the charges, the ICPC said that in 2021, he “received house 79 Randall Avenue, London NW2 7SX,: purportedly given to him by Mr Shani Tali, an act he allegedly knew constituted a felony, thereby committing an offence contrary to section 13 and punishable under section 24 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

The ICPC also alleged that Mr Ozekhome forged a Nigeria passport purportedly with number A07535463 which bore Shani Tali’s name to claim the property “with the intent to commit fraud” contrary to Section 363 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code CAP 532 laws of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, 2006.

Also, ICPC also charged him with dishonestly using the forged document to support the claim of ownership of the property, which is an offence contrary to Section 366 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code CAP 532 laws of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, 2006.