Visa applicant jailed for filing false document with US Embassy

A Nigerian Visa Applicant, Lukman Owolabi Ogunsuada, 38, has been sentenced to jail for presenting forged letter of invitation to the officials at the United States Embassy in Lagos to secure B1 and B2 Visa categories.

The convict was jailed by Chief Magistrate N. A. Layeni of Apapa Magistrates Court after he found him guilty of the 2-count charges of forgery preferred against him by the police at the special fraud unit, PSFU, Ikoyi, Lagos during the trial spanning about 3 years.

Magistrate Layeni sentenced the convict in count one of the charge to one year imprisonment or alternatively to a fine of N100, 000 and 200 hours community service or to a fine of N20, 000 in count two of the charges. Layeni said the sentence would run concurrently.

Police prosecuting counsel, ASP Wewe Adegbayi had informed the court that the journey to jail started for the convict on 11 October, 2017 when he went to submit a letter of invitation to the officials at the American Embassy in Lagos to process B1 and B2 Visa categories.

Adegbayi said that when the Embassy officials scanned the document, they discovered that it was forged and they held the convict and sent a distress call to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Special Fraud Unit, Lagos. The CP dispatched his team led by DSP Lawal Audu to the Embassy to arrest the convict.

According to him, during investigation, the convict confessed to the crime and said that he used his phone to edit original letter of invitation and inserted his name and submitted it to the Embassy officials thinking they would not be able to detect that the letter of invitation was forged.

Adegbayi said the offences, the convict committed were punishable under sections 365 and 366 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

SOURCE: https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/12/31/visa-applicant-jailed-for-filing-false-document-with-us-embassy/

Many don't know it is a criminal act and they could be convicted for it.