The United States Department of Justice has announced charges against three Nigerian nationals in separate cases involving illegal voting, false claims of U.S. citizenship and related offenses.
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The charges were announced in a September 18, 2026 press release as part of a nationwide announcement involving 16 individuals accused of illegal voting, illegal voter registration and related election offenses.
The three Nigerian nationals identified by the DOJ are Helen Sayen Adams, 67; Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, 27; and Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56.
According to the Department of Justice, Adams is a Nigerian citizen and lawful permanent resident who has held a green card since May 2024. She was charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and making a false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote.
Federal prosecutors said Adams allegedly claimed to be a U.S. citizen on a Texas voter registration application in June 2024 and later voted in the November 2024 general election in Tarrant County.
Akpom, 27, is also a Nigerian citizen and lawful permanent resident, having held permanent resident status since 2016. He was charged with making false statements in relation to naturalization.
According to prosecutors, Akpom allegedly denied on his 2026 naturalization application that he had previously claimed U.S. citizenship, registered to vote or voted, despite records showing that he registered to vote in 2017 and voted in the 2018 general election. Prosecutors said the voting conduct itself was outside the applicable statute of limitations, leading them to pursue the naturalization-related charge.
Meanwhile, Okafor, 56, a Nigerian national and lawful permanent resident living in Massachusetts, was arrested and charged with unlawfully voting as a non-citizen.
The Department of Justice said Okafor was born in Aba, Nigeria, and obtained lawful permanent resident status in December 2022. Prosecutors allege that she submitted a voter registration form in July 2022 in which she certified that she was a U.S. citizen and subsequently voted in the 2022 midterm elections.
The DOJ also said she submitted another voter registration form in October 2023 identifying herself as a U.S. citizen and allegedly voted in the 2024 presidential primary election.
The cases form part of a broader federal enforcement action announced by the Justice Department concerning non-citizen voting and false citizenship claims in federal elections.
The Justice Department emphasized that criminal complaints, indictments and charging documents contain accusations and that defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.