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Nigerian Woman Arrested in US over Alleged False Citizenship Claim
Prosecutors say she signed voter forms claiming U.S. citizenship and cast ballots in 2022 and 2024, with investigators tracing the case to local voter rolls.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Gladys Adaeze Okafor in Lynn, Massachusetts, charging the Nigerian national with unlawfully voting in the 2022 and 2024 elections after allegedly falsely attesting to U.S. citizenship.
Investigators initiated the probe by reviewing local voter rolls to identify noncitizen registration; Okafor allegedly signed registration forms in 2022 and 2023 falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, matching signatures on her immigration documents.
Okafor, a lawful permanent resident, faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for the unlawful voting charges; she was arraigned in federal court in the Seaport and released on her own recognizance.
Federal prosecutors announced charges against 16 individuals across seven states on September 18, accusing them of unlawful voting by non-citizens, false citizenship claims, and related offenses including wire fraud and naturalization fraud.
A Census Bureau report analyzing the 2020 election found that out of nearly 160 million voters, the bureau determined with high confidence that over 128 million voter records represented citizens and over 24,000 represented noncitizens.