Forgery: Court strips Rep-elect, orders his prosecution

Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, has ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Christian Abah to represent Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal ‎Constituency in the House of Representatives‎ of the forthcoming 8th National Assembly.
Delivering judgment in the suit challenging Abah’s eligibility to stand for the election, Justice Ademola held that the allegation of certificate forgery levelled against him, by the plaintiff, Mr. Hassan Saleh, was established to be true.

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

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 Petition 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.
Abah, who is a member of the PDP had earlier been declared elected unopposed 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 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 judgement that had since 2011 affirmed that he (Abah) presented a forged certificate for the purpose of standing for an election.

Ripples…without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now