Policymakers and legal observers say the fallout from a recent London court ruling involving senior Nigerian lawyer Mike Ozekhome SAN is far from over.

A civil society group, Justice Reform Project, has filed a petition against Ozekhome before Nigeria’s Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. The petition seeks an investigation into alleged professional misconduct linked to a North London property dispute.

Petitions were also filed against Ozekhome’s son, Osilama Ozekhome, London-based lawyer Kingsley Efemuai, and Mohammed Edewor. Three Nigerian senior advocates, Charles Candide-Johnson, Babatunde Ajibade and Babajide Ogundipe, joined the group as co-petitioners. The petition was submitted on October 27, 2025.

Read Also: Just In: BOSAN says it has commenced investigation into the Mike Ozekhome and Tali Shani scandal

The move followed a September 11 ruling by a London Property Tribunal. Judge Ewan Paton struck out claims made by Ozekhome and others over a property at 79 Randall Avenue, North London. The tribunal described the case as an abuse of judicial process.

Ozekhome had claimed the property was gifted to him in 2021 by one Tali Shani. He said the gift was compensation for legal services allegedly worth N100 million. The property was later linked to the estate of the late General Jeremiah Useni, a former Federal Capital Territory minister.

Read Also: [Download Full Judgment] Mike Ozekhome and the Tali Shani web

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A rival claim by a person identifying as Ms Tali Shani triggered a tribunal investigation. The probe uncovered conflicting documents and disputed identities. The judge ruled that the alleged Ms Shani never existed.

The tribunal found that the property was secretly purchased in 1993 by Useni. It ruled that the name Tali Shani was used as a front. Judge Paton said the case rested on forgery, impersonation and deception.

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The court rejected Ozekhome’s defence as contrived. It ruled that documents and witness statements were fabricated. The judge also questioned the role played by Ozekhome’s son in supporting the claims.

Following the ruling, Justice Reform Project accused Ozekhome of breaching Nigeria’s Rules of Professional Conduct. The group said his actions brought the legal profession into disrepute.

The petition accused Ozekhome of advancing false claims, misleading the tribunal and participating in tax evasion. It is alleged that he falsely declared that the property transfer involved no monetary consideration. The tribunal found that the claim was designed to avoid stamp duty.

The petition further alleged that Ozekhome pursued claims contradicted by his own witness, General Useni. It raised questions about fabricated witness statements and possible impersonation. The tribunal noted the withdrawal of a lawyer representing Ozekhome during proceedings.

Justice Reform Project said the conduct amounted to perjury and impersonation. It argued that the actions undermined public confidence in the legal profession. The group said the scandal damaged Nigeria’s global legal reputation.

The petition urged the disciplinary committee to investigate Ozekhome’s conduct. It also asked for appropriate sanctions if he is found guilty. The group said the case tests the profession’s commitment to accountability.

Click here to download the petition.

On a bank holiday evening in 2016, Robert Rhodes turned to his child and said: “Do you want to get rid of Mum?”

Those words, the child recalled years later, were the start of a plot for Rhodes to kill his wife, Dawn, in their Surrey home and cover up her death as an act of defence – of himself and his child.

For years, Rhodes painted himself as a victim of an attack in the killing he planned and covered up.

Described as swift and protective, jurors heard accounts of a father who moved to protect his child from their knife-wielding mother, who lost her life in the skirmish that ensued.

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The families of the late Mark A. Kanu, Jeremiah K. Ukpabi and Wokocha Worhorti have announced the death of their matriarch, Mrs Priscilla Queen Nwanediye Mark, who passed away peacefully on November 16, 2025, at the age of 95.

Mrs Mark, remembered as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, lived a life her family described as “a change from mortality to immortality,” reflecting gratitude for her long years of grace. Born in 1930, she witnessed nearly a century of social, political and cultural change.

She was the mother of High Chief Ibrahim Eddy Mark, President of the African Bar Association (AfBA), who signed the announcement as Chief Mourner.

The family released her funeral arrangements:

• Thursday, January 22, 2026, 4 p.m. — Service of Songs at St. Martins Anglican Church, Omagwa.
• Saturday, January 24, 2026, 10 a.m. — Burial Service at St. Martins Anglican Church, Omagwa, with interment at Ihunda Castle, Omucheta-Omagwa.
• Sunday, January 25, 2026, 10 a.m. — Thanksgiving Service at St. Martins Anglican Church, Omagwa, followed by a reception at the residence of High Chief Ibrahim Eddy Mark at Ihunda Castle, Omucheta, Omagwa.

The family invited friends, associates and well-wishers to join them in celebrating her life and legacy.
RSVP contacts were provided for those wishing to reach the family.

Dr. Sam Amadi, director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, says the ongoing U.S. fact-finding mission on religious freedom and insecurity in Nigeria reflects Washington’s growing distrust of both the Nigerian government’s official narrative and the country’s mainstream media.

Speaking on ARISE News, Amadi said the visit by a high-level U.S. congressional delegation—and their meetings with victims, clerics and government officials—shows the Trump administration is independently verifying claims of targeted attacks, governance failures and deteriorating security. According to him, the mission follows former President Donald Trump’s declaration that Nigeria should once again be reviewed as a “country of particular concern.”

“When Trump makes what looks like a policy statement on Twitter or at a press conference, it doesn’t mean America acts exactly in that tone,” he said. “They calibrate—and congressional hearings had already taken place before this visit.”

Amadi said the U.S. team arrived with three major concerns: potential withdrawal of critical aid, visa restrictions already underway and, in an extreme scenario, limited strikes against terrorist groups. Their approach, he added, signalled seriousness.

“If it was a Nigerian delegation, they’d spend days in a hotel meeting everybody. These people met the NSA briefly—and went straight to the field,” he said.

The delegation, he argued, deliberately bypassed official messaging. “They don’t want only government statements. They want victims. They are saying clearly: we don’t trust your official narrative or your media.”

Amadi said the U.S. is likely to reaffirm that Christians are disproportionately targeted in northern Nigeria, while noting that extremists “attack whatever is before them.”

He dismissed France’s recent offer to support Nigeria’s counter-terrorism efforts. “France is gasping for breath. Macron is tired. They are looking to Africa to rejuvenate their youth. I don’t trust French intervention.”

Amadi warned against any foreign military adventurism in West Africa. “We should be careful about invading Benin for any reason. We don’t want a precedent of West African invasion—and we don’t want Trump going ablaze into Nigeria.”

On whether Nigeria could be removed again from the U.S. “Country of Particular Concern” list, Amadi was blunt: symbolism won’t help. “We were removed in 2020 because lobbyists worked in Washington. But we won’t get out unless the facts change.”

He pointed to three core issues: the existence of what he called “criminal Sharia” that creates “constitutional double citizenship,” ongoing violence across the Benue Valley and persistent violations of the rule of law. “The American fact-finder process is not narrative-based. It’s fact-based. Change the facts—you get redesignated.”

Amadi criticised Nigeria’s political establishment for failing to respond meaningfully. “This is like injecting cocaine. The government will act possessively. But without local ownership and pressure, nothing changes.”

He said the National Assembly has been virtually absent. “A foreign country is threatening to bomb you. Have they held a hearing? All we hear is ‘Trump is lost.’ That is childish and irresponsible.”

He said a bipartisan inquiry was needed, particularly one that engages Nigerians who have already testified before the U.S. Congress. Instead, he argued, political parties are ducking responsibility. “The ruling APC says nothing. The ADC is playing dead. Nobody wants the inconvenience of speaking honestly.”

Amadi predicted Nigeria will remain a “country of particular concern,” though without significant risk of direct U.S. military action.

He also warned that West Africa is structurally vulnerable. “It is the most fragile, poorest, most undemocratic region in the world,” he said, linking ethnic conflict, environmental crises and institutional collapse to what he called “irresponsible and unaccountable governance.”

Poverty and conflict, he said, reinforce each other. “People see leaders who don’t care. They are trapped in conflict and poverty. It creates the illusion that military rule may be better than democracy.”

Amadi argued that foreign military aid is not the solution. “The antidote is not aircraft and bullets. It is good governance, economic growth and prosperity shared equally.”

Reddit has launched a challenge in Australia’s highest court against the nation’s landmark social media ban for children.

The online forum is among 10 social media platforms which must bar Australians aged under 16 from having accounts, under a new law which began on Wednesday.

The ban, which is being watched closely around the world, was justified by campaigners and the government as necessary to protect children from harmful content and algorithms.

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Fourteen-year-old cheerleader Lucy Brooks briefly lost some friends on Snapchat when Australia’s ban on social media came into effect on Wednesday.

But within 24 hours, they were back. Many had made new accounts, with some borrowing the faces of parents and older friends who were happy to help them evade age detection technology.

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Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence imposed on Maryam Sanda, daughter-in-law of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello and overruled the clemency granted her by President Bola Tinubu.

Sanda was convicted on January 27, 2020, by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, for fatally stabbing Bello at their Maitama home in 2017.

She was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.

Maryam Sanda had spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja Correctional Centre before President Bola Tinubu granted her clemency, reducing the sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), later defended her inclusion in the presidential pardon, saying it was granted “on compassionate grounds and in the best interest of the children,” adding that her record of “good conduct, new lifestyle, model behaviour and remorsefulness” formed part of the justification.

But, in a split decision of four to one, a five-member panel of the apex court on Friday reinstated the original death sentence.

The apex court dismissed her appeal in its entirety, holding that she failed to show any error in the concurrent findings of the lower courts.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein held that the prosecution proved the charge beyond reasonable doubt and that the Court of Appeal was right to affirm the conviction.

The topmost court also faulted Tinubu’s intervention, asserting that it was inappropriate for the Executive to grant clemency in a homicide case while an appeal was still pending.

With the decision, the death sentence earlier handed down by the trial court stands.