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Federal High Court HQ, Abuja
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A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National
Electoral Commission to cancel the certificate of return issued to Christian
Abah for the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency seat in the House of
Representatives of the forthcoming 8th National Assembly.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola, delivering
judgment in the suit filed in January 2015 challenging Abah’s eligibility to
stand for the election on Wednesday, held that the allegation of certificate
forgery levelled against Abah by the plaintiff, Mr. Hassan Saleh, was
established to be true.
Abah was said to have forged an
Ordinary National Diploma certificate in Accountancy purportedly obtained from
the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, in 1985.
The Punch reports:
Justice Ademola said his findings
revealed that an earlier judgment of the National/State Assembly Election
Petitions Tribunal sitting in Makurdi delivered on September 6, 2011, and a
letter by the Registrar of the polytechnic, Mr. Suleiman Buba, affirmed that
the certificate presented by Abah to INEC was forged.
After granting all the 11 prayers
sought by the plaintiff, the court granted four other ancillary reliefs in
which the defendant was ordered to be prosecuted for forgery, perjury and
falsification of results.
Abah, who is of the Peoples
Democratic Party, had earlier been declared unopposed and elected being the
only candidate presented for the March 28 National Assembly election.
The court, in its judgment, declared
as wasted all the votes garnered by Abah in the PDP’s primary held on December
6, 2014. The court went further to declared Saleh, who came second in the said
primary, as the actual winner.
Justice Ademola ordered INEC to
issue fresh certificate of return to Saleh.
The judge also ordered the incoming
Speaker of the 8th National Assembly to swear in Saleh as the member
representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency.
He berated the conduct of the
counsel for the PDP and Abah in the suit, Mr. Sunday Ameh (SAN), for the
frivolous applications and tactics to delay and frustrate the hearing of the
case.
Justice Ademola therefore ordered
that the processes filed in the suit and his judgment be served on the Nigerian
Bar Association, the Body of Benchers, the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary
Committee, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee with a view to taking
appropriate action against Ameh.
The court ruled, “The 2nd defendant
(INEC) is hereby ordered to cancel the certificate of return issued to
Christian Abah.
“The 2nd defendant is also ordered
to issue certificate of return to Honourable Hassan Anthony Saleh as member
representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency in the 8th National
Assembly and he be sworn in by the Speaker of the 8th National Assembly.
“It is also ordered that the 3rd
defendant (Abah) be handed over to the law enforcement agency to be prosecuted
for forgery, perjury and falsification of documents in the light of the
exhibits and the findings of this court just delivered.
“It is also ordered that the record
of proceedings in this suit and all processes as well as senior counsel, S.I.
Ameh be referred to the disciplinary committee of the NBA, the body of bencher,
the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for appropriate action.”
The judge also imposed N450, 000
fine on the three defendants – the PDP, INEC and Abah in favour of the
plaintiff.
The court berated both the INEC and PDP for
promoting “the culture of impunity” by their failure to disqualify Abah from
participating in the election in view of the tribunal’s judgment that had since
2011 affirmed that he (Abah) presented a forged certificate for the purpose of
standing for an election.
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