Woman named Obama jailed for forgery in Dubai

Nigerian woman is convicted of forging her passport and a visit visa to the UAE as well as overstayed her visa

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A woman, named Blessing Obama, will spend three months in a Dubai prison after forging documents and overstaying her visit visa.

On July 9, the Nigerian namesake, 29, visited Dubai’s residency and naturalisation department to request that the paperwork allowing her to exit the country because she had overstayed her visa be expedited.

"Her passport looked like it could have been altered so I sent the passport to the criminal lab for inspection. They confirmed that the visit visa stamp was forged, as was the first page of the passport that contained her personal information," an Emirati passport officer, 48, told Dubai Criminal Court.
He said that the woman became tense when he confronted her so he referred her to prosecutors for investigation.

At Dubai Criminal Court last August, the woman denied charges of forgery, use of forged documents and overstaying her visa. On Monday, Obama was convicted and sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a Dh2,000 fine for overstaying her visa.

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