A couple’s strange attitude when interacting with a child at Manchester Airport raised suspicions among border officials, who quickly stepped in, according to news sources.
When questioned, Raphael Ossai, who claimed to be the girl’s father, produced a fictitious birth certificate that named his travelling partner, Oluwakemi Olasanoye, as the baby’s mother.
On the other hand, authorities found a second birth certificate that listed Ossai’s British wife as the baby’s mother and was concealed in the couple’s suitcase lining.
According to the Border Force investigation, the child was born in a Nigerian rural community in 2022 and was handed to an orphanage by her young mother when she was three days old.
Subsequently, Ossai and Olasanoye were accused and charged with illegally transferring the baby to the UK from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial metropolis.
According to DNA evidence given in court, the child is not biologically related to Ossai or his travelling companion. The husband later revealed to the court that he had taken custody of her when she was a baby and that he and his British wife had been searching for a child to adopt.
Further investigations showed that the couple was granted legal authorisation to foster the little girl, but not to adopt her or remove her from Nigeria, the court concluded. They were sentenced to 18 months in prison after entering a guilty plea to immigration crimes.
After that, Ossai and his British wife begged the court to give them custody of the girl, but the court denied their request.
The husband went on to say that child was like a daughter to him and that the British court had no right to take her away because he was approved as her foster father by Nigerian officials.
Jonathan Cohen, a judge in the High Court, decided that the couple’s deception and behaviour, particularly the removal of Lucy from Nigeria, had “inevitably caused her very significant emotional harm.”
Join Our Social Media Channels:
WhatsApp:NaijaEyes
Facebook: NaijaEyes
Twitter: NaijaEyes
Instagram: NaijaEyes
TikTok: NaijaEyes
