Some visa applicants nabbed at the US Consulate-General in the month of July have been handed over to the Police Special Fraud Unit in Lagos for prosecution.
According to SFU’s spokesperson, Ngozi Nsitume, a petition from the US Consulate Lagos on July 9, 2014, alleged that one Adegbola Esther appeared at US. Consulate-General for a Non-Immigrant Visa Interview with forged Canadian Turkish and Angolan visas showing entry and exit stamps.
Kunle Falayi of Saturday Punch revealed that the visas were forged by Esther’s boyfriend, one Oloni Olawale, after she paid him N100,000 for the three fake visa, to facilitate approval of her US visa application.
In another case, the US Consulate-General alleged that on July 10, 2014, another applicant, Akinlade Olugbenga, appeared for a US Immigrant Visa interview with fake name – Awoleye Tope, an individual said to have won a visa lottery.
“The suspect knowingly and fraudulently appeared at the US Embassy to steal the identity of the real winner of the diversity visa lottery,” the statement said.
A day after Olugbenga was nabbed at the embassy, another applicant, Adewole Fatimah whose real name was Adeniyi Motunrayo, was alleged to have appeared at the embassy with one Adewole Oluwaseun for a diversity visa interview. Motunrayo was said to have attempted to steal the identity of the real winner of the diversity visa lottery.
It was the same case of identity theft against applicant Omoyemi Olaiya, whose real name is Samuel Ojo and Ibenne Nkem whose real name is Ogundipe Emmanuel.
Like a harvest of fraudulent applicants, the SFU said one Babatunde Abiola and Babatunde Adenike was also nabbed for presenting forged bio-data, wedding pictures, marriage certificate and fake result to the embassy even though their real names are Oguntimehin Olanike and Aderoju Eunice.
Nsitume said, “One Aderoju Qasim and Aderoju Eunice presented forged bio-data and fake documents to the US Embassy for immigrant visas. Their real names are Oyewole Tunde and Abelese Olayinka. Both suspects fraudulently appeared at the embassy to steal the identity of the real winners of a diversity visa lottery.
“In this same month, one Christiana Omagu, a female Nigerian–American citizen, appeared before the US Consulate General to process a US passport for a male child. Investigation revealed that the suspect and her husband, Donald Omagu, were not the parents of the child, but only needed the passport to traffic the child to US.
“Finally on July 17, 2014, one Idrisu Martins, an impostor appeared at the embassy for an immigrant visa but investigation revealed that he was not the winner of the diversity visa lottery he appeared to claim.
“Investigation is on-going on these individuals. All suspects would be charged to court soon to serve as a deterrent to other intending visa fraudsters.”