By our Reporter
The United Kingdom (UK) has revoked the visas of two Nigerian men who secured entry into the country through the global talent visa route using forged evidence.
Britain’s global talent visa route is an immigration pathway designed to attract highly skilled and promising professionals in fields such as digital technology, arts and culture, academia, research, science, engineering, medicine, humanities, and social sciences to live and work in the UK.
Applicants do not need a pending job offer and have the flexibility to work for employers, become self-employed, or set up their own businesses within their endorsed field.
A BBC investigation found two Nigerian men — Silva Ndifon and Adanu Emmanuel Okoko — posed as fine art photographers to obtain talent visas. They are now believed to be living in the UK.
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Their alleged deception first came to light when Molara Wood, an art critic, discovered articles reviewing their work in the Nigerian Tribune that carried her byline, despite the fact she had not written them.
Artists applying for the global talent visa are required to provide at least two examples of recent press coverage reviewing or profiling their work.
“It is writing that I would not want associated with me,” Wood told BBC. “The images were not worthy of comment.”
BBC noted that the Nigerian Tribune said it had identified a “staff member who had posted the articles on our website without authorisation”.
The newspaper removed the reviews following Wood’s complaint. The staff member reportedly said an outside had supplied the article but denied receiving payment.
“There is a real problem whereupon fake articles are being implanted onto newspaper websites using the bylines of reputable culture journalists,” Wood added.
Wood first flagged the false art reviews on her X page in March.
“Who is Silva Ndifon? Crazy thing, last night I discovered that in March 2022, a “review” of Ndifon’s “art” was published in @nigeriantribune– with my byline!!! Never heard of Ndifon until last night. I didn’t write this. This is fraud, grand deception, a confidence trick,” she posted.
A separate review of Okoko’s work, also falsely attributed to Wood, was published in 2023.
She told the BBC that other critics had also experienced similar incidents.
Ndifon’s work has received significant media coverage in other publications. However, it does not feature the kind of fine-art photography described in the article that Wood did not write.
Okoko, on the other hand, appears to have little to connect him to photography, or any other kind of art.
The BBC said it contacted the Home Office with findings of the investigation, and the men’s visas are now understood to be in the process of being revoked.
