"I am In Love" - Nigerian Facing Deportation in the UK Maintains.

Duke Okorie.

Although, he has been accused of taking part in a fake marriage in order to stay permanently in the UK, Duke Okorie said love was the reason behind him marrying a Portuguese woman called Carla Ramos at a Nottingham church, and not as a way to overcome UK immigration laws.

He is one of the four people on trial at Nottingham Crown Court who denied conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration between January 1, 2008, and August 8, 2010. Prosecutors say his marriage was one of a number between Nigerian and Portuguese nationals which took place at churches and register offices in Nottingham, before applications were then made to the Home Office for UK residency.

He maintain that, he only learned his wife was not who she said she was after their application for UK residency was refused in October 2009, and has not seen her since. According to Notthinghampost Bryan Henesey – Okorie was quoted that "She wasn't the person that she claimed to be. We were quarreling; she was angry with me and I was angry as well. She left. I don't know where she went."

More report by Nothinghampost after the cut.

Okorie said he did not have enough money to go back to Nigeria when his visa ended and had been living in Nottingham collecting tips as a toilet assistant at Tantra nightclub, in Victoria Street, and it was through this role that he met the woman who claimed to be Carla Ramos.

Steven Ramsell, representing Okorie, asked his client how the two had met. Okorie said: 

"I met Carla one night after finishing work. "She approached me. She said 'hello handsome' and I smiled and said 'hello'. "After two or three days, she rang me and we met." Okorie said the woman told him she lived in Leicester and worked in a school.

She used to visit Okorie's then home on Hartley Road, Radford, and he claimed it was she who asked him about marriage. After first refusing, he agreed when asked a second time. The couple wed on October 25, 2008, at St Peter's Church, in Radford, where Okorie had been a parishioner. James House, prosecuting, asked Okorie why he had overstayed the terms of his visa. Okorie said: "I was ignorant about it. I didn't know who to ask." Three other defendants accused in the case are Michael Eke, 39, of Hazlewood Road, Hyson Green, and couple Leya Mtonga and Nuno Moriera, both of Debs Hill Lane, Northolt, Middlesex. The trial continues.