United States v. Akanni

The evidence presented at Akanni's bench trial included the following facts. A citizen of Nigeria, Akanni entered the United States in 2003 on a six-month visa. In 2005, two weeks after he was arrested for overstaying his visa, he married an American citizen. Akanni applied for permanent resident status on the basis of that marriage. In 2009, his application was denied after his then-wife withdrew her supporting petition, and the two divorced. A year later, Akanni applied for asylum. In February 2013, two months before his asylum application was denied, Akanni married Terri Allen, another American citizen whom he had met a couple of months earlier. They had separate apartments. Akanni never informed Allen before their marriage that he was subject to deportation. When, in May 2013, Allen moved into a new apartment that she intended to be the marital abode, Akanni deposited some of his clothes there and spent only three or four nights a week there. He purported to be at a 'friend's house' or at 'work' during the remainder of the week. Unbeknownst to Allen, another woman, Olufunke Babatunde, with whom Akanni would later have a child, was living with him in his apartment and had been since 2011. Allen soon suspected Akanni of infidelity, and the two separated within a few months.