British embassy held Nigerian Film producer over forgery

Juliana Francis

A Nigerian film producer who wanted to travel out of Nigeria has been arrested by the British High Commission over forgery of income tax clearance certificate from Edo State Board of Internal Revenue Service.

The suspect, St. John Ojo Osaghae was arrested by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), after it received a petition from the British Deputy High Commission to the Commissioner of Police, Special Fraud Unit alleging Osaghae, holder of Nigerian passport no. A0 3916493 applied for a six months visit visa to U.K. on 27/09/2013 but the visa application was refused and it was discovered that the applicant had submitted a forged income tax clearance certificate from Edo State Board of Internal Revenue Service.

The certificate was checked by a trained forgery officer and confirmed to be forged.

The suspect was arrested and in the course of investigation, it was revealed that Osaghae, a 34-year old man from Benin in Edo State, graduated from Ambrose Alli University and a film producer. 

According to him, he was given an invitation letter for a film festival award in United Kingdom last year but was denied visa by the U.K. High Commission.

That sometime in August 2013, his friend Osahon introduced him to one Mr. Smart Imafidon who charged him the sum of N180, 000.00 to assist him package another documents for visa application to U.K. High Commission. 

He allegedly confessed that it was Imafidon who procured all the forged documents, including the company income tax he took to the U.K. embassy for visa application and was subsequently arrested.

Police further investigation led to the arrest of Imafidon, a document vendor who stated that he is a musician as well as a consultant for visa applicants. 

Imafidon corroborated Osaghae’s statement, that he packaged all the documents for the visa application which turned out to be forged. 

He further stated that it was Osaghae who instigated him to forge the company income tax since he was desperate to travel to United Kingdom.

SFU spokesperson, Ngozi Isintume-Agu, confirmed the arrest of the two suspects. She said that investigation was on-going, adding that both suspects will be arraigned in court soonest to serve as deterrent to other desperate Nigerians intending to travel out of the country with forged documents.