A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the
Independent National Electoral Commission to nullify the Certificate of Return issued to Christian Abah for the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives at the forthcoming 8th National Assembly.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, delivering judgment in the
suit, challenging Abah’s eligibility to stand for the
election, held that the allegation of certificate forgery levelled against him by the plaintiff, Mr. Hassan Saleh, had been 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.

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.

The court ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to immediately commence
prosecution of Abah for forgery and perjury.

Abah, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic
Party, had earlier been declared unopposed and
elected being the only candidate presented for the
March 28, 2015 election.

The court, in his judgment, declared all the votes
that accrued to him in the PDP’s primary, held on
December 6, 2014, as wasted and also declared
Saleh, who came second as the winner of the
primary.

He ordered INEC to issue a fresh Certificate of Return to Saleh.

The court also ordered the incoming Speaker of the 8th National Assembly to swear in Saleh as the member representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo
Federal Constituency.

The court also berated the conduct of the counsel for PDP and Abah in the suit, Mr. S.I Ameh (SAN), for the frivolous applications and tactics to delay 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 Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee with a view of taking appropriate sanctions against Ameh.

The judge also imposed a 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 court judgment that had since 2011
affirmed that he (Abah) presented a forged certificate for the purpose of standing for an election.



www.punchng.com/news/court-nullifies-benue-rep-elects-certificate-of-return-orders-prosecution/
Cc: lalasticlala

Good one

The Nigerian judicairy is like an ashawo who only responds positively to a well-paying customer.




Mark my word on this issue. The same court of law would tell us that Bar. Wike won the April 11th election in Rivers state with the returned 1million votes.