Skip to main content
Press Release

Nigerian Woman Pleads Guilty; Sentenced For Improper Use Of A Passport

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York

CONTACT:        Barbara Burns              
PHONE:           (716) 843-5817
FAX:              (716) 551-3051

BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul. Jr. announced today that Elizabeth Afola Oyenekan, 42, of Nigeria, pleaded guilty to improper use of another’s passport. The defendant was sentenced to time served by Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott S. Allen, Jr., who handled the case, stated that the defendant attempted to enter the United States at the Peace Bridge Port of Entry on February 1, 2015. Oyenekan presented a Canadian passport to a Customs and Border Protection Officer bearing the name Diana Adetuni. When asked where she was born, Oyenekan stated Nigeria but quickly retracted and claimed she was born in Saint Vincent. The defendant also told the officer she was traveling to Brooklyn, NY to stay with a friend.

A search of the defendant’s luggage revealed a credit card in the name of E. O. Oyenekan which was a possible match to a previous Visa Waiver Refusal in Ireland in October 2014. An officer then entered the defendant’s fingerprints into a Fingerprint Identification System and determined that she was in fact Elizabeth Afola Oyenekan and not Diana Adetuni. 

The plea and sentencing are the culmination of an investigation on the part of Customs and Border Protection, under the direction of Rose Hilmey, ActingDirector of Field Operations.

Updated March 26, 2015