Nigerian Woman, Faust Abolore Who Paid Man £1000, to Pose as Baby’s Daddy for a U.K Passport, Has Been Jailed

29-year Nigerian woman identified as Faust Abolore plotted to gain British citizenship by putting 44-year-old Anthony Ezekpo’s name on her son’s birth certificate, for a fee of £1000. She subsequently used it to apply for passport.

However, she was found out when photographs of the child’s real father, Nigerian national, Peter Gentry, were posted on Facebook, showing him cradling the boy at a naming ceremony.

Inner London crown court heard that Abolore got a job as a care home assistant in 2011 with a bogus Portuguese passport, and had twice been turned down for leave to remain in 2013 and 2014. 

Jailing her and Ezekpo for 18 months each, Judge Mark Bishop said:

“These sort of offences undermine confidence in the system of immigration control. You, Abolore, were seeking to cheat your way into being allowed to remain in this country. Ezekpo, you agreed to help her in making that possible.”
29-year Nigerian woman identified as Faust Abolore plotted to gain British citizenship by putting 44-year-old Anthony Ezekpo’s name on her son’s birth certificate, for a fee of £1000. She subsequently used it to apply for passport.

However, she was found out when photographs of the child’s real father, Nigerian national, Peter Gentry, were posted on Facebook, showing him cradling the boy at a naming ceremony.

Ezekpo actually lives on the outskirts of Newcastle, and Abolore wired £1,000 to his bank account the day the birth certificate was signed, jurors heard.

“He was enlisted as part of a fraudulent scheme to get British citizenship for her to remain in the UK,” said prosecutor Adam Gardner.

“A man turned up with her at council offices in Greenwich to register the birth and get a birth certificate. The man putting himself forward as the father was not Mr Gentry but Mr Ezekpo, and they both said they lived together.”

Abolore gave birth to her son at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich on August 6, 2014, and a photo on her phone shows Mr Gentry cradling the newborn child.

They were living together in Columbus Square, Erith, having entered the UK illegally, the court heard, and Abolore was facing deportation.

Once she had the birth certificate with Ezekpo’s name on it, she submitted a passport application signed by Ezekpo and counter-signed by Samson Awoyinka, 29, it is alleged.

“Mr Awoyinka said he knew Mr Ezekpo for five years from his church congregation,” said Mr Gardner.

“This was not true, he barely knew the man. He then admitted he signed the passport application and went to Greenwich.”

Abolore, who was arrested in September last year, refused to consent to a paternity test. 

“She had a great deal to hide,” said the prosecutor. “She knew if she gave consent to the DNA test it would reveal the truth that Mr Ezekpo was not the father and her application for a passport and birth certificate were all lies.”

Abolore, of  Colombus Square, Erith, and Ezekpo, of Litchfield Street, Winlaton, Gateshead, deny conspiracy to breach immigration law and giving false information when registering a birth. Abolore also denies seeking leave to remain in the UK by deception.


Awoyinka, of Havil Street, Southwark, denies making a false statement.