The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on Tuesday withdrew the charges filed by the Federal Government against Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Informing the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Rotimi Oyedepo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said he was instructed by the AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, also a SAN, to “withdraw the instant charge against the defendant pursuant to Section 108 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.”
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The Section invoked by Mr Oyedepo allows a prosecutor, on the instructions of the AGF, to withdraw the charge against a defendant.
He added that the withdrawal will enable the AGF to strengthen his review of all the cases before all the prosecuting agencies.
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Mr Ozekhome’s lawyer, Paul Erokoro, a SAN, who appeared with 17 others SANs and other lawyers, did not object to this.
Following this, the court struck out the case against Mr Ozekhome.
On 16 January, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (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.
His arraignment was slated for 26 January. But trial judge Peter Kekemeke postponed the arraignment till today (Tuesday) at the request of the AGF.
According to the DPP, the request to reschedule the arraignment was to allow a clean transfer of the case file from the ICPC to the office of AGF and Minister of Justice.
Details of charges
The charges, filed on 16 January by Ngozi Onwuka of 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 Nigerian 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 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.
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