A British passport issued in Ghana and posted to an applicant in Britain some months ago never got to its destination. It however found its way into wrong hands.
A 34-year-old Nigerian national, Ms Michelle Osaime, who attempted to travel with the said document to London, United Kingdom, through the Kotoka International Airport has been arrested and put before the Osu Community Tribunal.
The tribunal found her guilty on three counts of possession of forged document, altering an official document, as well as deceit of public officer and sentenced her to a fine of ?600,000.
The prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Immirgration (DSI) Constant Hometorwu of the Legal Department of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), told the tribunal, presided over by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills, that upon the arrest of Ms Osaime, her passport was referred to the British High Commission in Accra for verification and the investigations by the UK Passport Agency revealed that the said passport was originally issued to one Michelle Lisa Rowe.
“However the true applicant reported to the agency later that she had not received her passport after she had been advised that the document had been sent to her by post,” he said.
He said a replacement passport was issued to her and the missing passport declared lost. After the investigations, it was found out that Ms Osaime’s passport had been fraudulently acquired and she was charged with the offence.
In a related development, two other Nigerians, Zahid A. Adeleton and Peregrine Simon Lascelles alias Kingsley Oburoh, have also appeared before the same tribunal for possessing passports suspected to have been fraudulently acquired.
Mr Hometorwu told the tribunal that the accused persons who are both Nigerians arrived on different dates at the Kotoka International Airport, enroute to London and New York.
He said when they presented their passports for departure formalities, immigration officials on duty suspected that the documents had been fraudulently acquired.
