The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate to represent Ado/Opoku/Ogbadibo federal constituency of Benue state, in the House of Representatives, Mr Christian Abah has been sued to court for certificate forgery.
The suit against Mr. Abah was filed by the member currently representing the Ado/Opoku/ Ogbadibo Federal Constituency in the House, Hassan Sale.
Mr Hassan Sale filed the suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja asking the court to disqualify Abah for allegedly presenting forged certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Earlier, INEC had already said Abah will be declared elected by the commission as there were no opposing candidate against him in the forthcoming poll, based on on the provision of Section 41 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
However, Hassan in his suit numbered FHC/ABJ/989/14 filed through his counsel, Mathias Emeribe, alleged that Abah committed perjury for allegedly lying on oath when he claimed in his INEC Form CF 001 that he never presented forged certificate to the commission.
To support his allegation, the plaintiff presented an Affidavit which claimed that Abah had in 2011 in his INEC Form CF 001 claimed to have attended the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi from 1982-1983 and obtained a National Diploma in Accountancy.
The plaintiff said a letter from the institution showed otherwise.
The letter, dated December 22, 2014 with reference number FPM/ACD/S/III/620, was signed by the Registrar, Dr. Suleiman S. Buba, reads “Mr. Abah Christain Adabah had never enrolled for a National Diploma programme in Accountancy in the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi.
Consequently, he was never issued with a National Diploma certificate in Accountancy.
Thus, the National Diploma certificate (in Accountancy) he claimed to have acquired from the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, is a purely forged one, and therefore not genuine. We, therefore, distantly disassociated ourselves from it.
He asked the court to determine, “Whether by the provision of section 66(1) (i) the 3rd defendant (Abah) has not disqualified himself having presented forged documents to INEC."
Whether by the combined provisions of paragraph 22 [g] of the electoral guidelines of the PDP and section 31 [2][5] [6] of the constitution, the court will not disqualify the 3rd defendant for perjury.
If the court answers the questions in favour of the plaintiff, then, it is urged to make an order declaring the plaintiff, who emerged second at the primaries as the duly nominated candidate of the PDP for the federal constituency.
He therefore sought “an order disqualifying the 3rd defendant as the PDP candidate for the Ado/Apoku/Ogbadigbo Federal Constituency of Benue State.
The suit was adjourned until February 5, 2015 for mention by Justice Gabriel Kolawole.
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