- Green Card Holders Face Prison Terms and Deportation Over Unlawful Ballots Cast in US Presidential and Midterm Polls
- Federal Grand Juries in Texas and Massachusetts Unseal Indictments in 16-Suspect Multi-State Election Integrity Crackdown
- DOJ Bypasses Five-Year Statute of Limitations by Hitting 27-Year-Old Nigerian with Citizenship Screening Perjury
Three Nigerian nationals living as lawful permanent residents in the United States have been indicted in federal court for allegedly registering and casting ballots in American elections, the United States Department of Justice announced on Friday.
The defendants—Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56; Helen Sayen Adams, 67; and Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, 27—are among 16 foreign nationals swept up in a coordinated nationwide crackdown on non-citizen voting, passport fraud, and false declarations of US citizenship.
Under United States federal law, voting in a federal election while holding foreign nationality carries a one-year prison sentence, heavy fines, and mandatory revocation of permanent residency, paving the way for immediate deportation.
Okafor, who lives in Massachusetts, was arrested after federal investigators found she had voted in both the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential primary.
According to court filings unsealed in the District of Massachusetts, Okafor secured her lawful permanent resident status in December 2022.
She had never been naturalised as an American citizen, nor had she filed an application for citizenship. Yet, prosecutors allege she signed an official voter registration certificate declaring, under penalty of perjury, that she was a United States citizen.
Down in the Northern District of Texas, federal prosecutors unsealed a separate indictment charging 67-year-old Helen Sayen Adams with voting by an alien in a federal election and making false statements of citizenship.
Adams obtained her green card in May 2024.
Within weeks of receiving permanent residency, she allegedly filed a Texas voter registration form in June 2024 claiming full American citizenship, and then went on to cast an illegal ballot in the November 2024 general election.
The third Nigerian, 27-year-old Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, faces a different legal maneuver.
A lawful permanent resident since 2016, Akpom registered on US voter rolls in 2017 and voted during the 2018 midterm elections.
Because the direct voting offence exceeded the federal five-year statute of limitations, Justice Department prosecutors bypassed the clock. They charged him instead with naturalisation fraud, alleging he lied on his 2026 citizenship application by denying he had ever registered or voted in an election.
The sweeping operation also snared 13 other foreign nationals across federal districts, including citizens of Mexico, India, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Department of Justice noted that the unsealed indictments are formal charges, emphasising that all defendants remain presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
