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Certificate Forgery: court finds
Plateau lawmaker guilty, orders payment of 30
million naira damages
By Lovins Yakubu
February 26, 2019
The Federal High Court sitting in Jos has on
Tuesday, found a Plateau State lawmaker, Ibrahim Baba Hassan guilty of
certificate forgery who claimed to have obtained it from university of Jos. The
Court also ordered the sum of 30 million naira damages be paid to the plaintiff.
The lawmaker
who represents Jos North-North in the Plateau state House of Assembly was
dragged to court since 2015 over pre- election matter by Abdul Nasir Saleh,
challenging the authenticity of his Diploma Certificate in Business Administration
which he claimed to have obtained from University of Jos.
Saleh
contested party primaries with the said lawmaker on the platform of All
Progressive Congress in 2015 where he came second.
The
presiding Judge, Justice Musa Kurya in
his judgment on the matter today, said there was no trace of proof that the
diploma certificate submitted to INEC by Hassan was genuinely obtained from
University of Jos.
Kurya added
that based on the direct and oral evidence submitted by the registrar of the
University of Jos before the court, it was true that the certificate presented
by the embattled lawmaker to INEC in 2015 was not obtained from the said
institution, stressing that the evidence giving by the registrar was true and
uncontroversial.
According to
the Judge, “I wonder a person whose diploma certificate is proved to have been
forged sitting and making laws. I wonder the laws that he will make for the
development of his constituency and by extension, the state as a whole".
Kurya further
granted other prayers sought by the plaintiff thus;
" That
the information that the 1st Defendant possess a Diploma in Business
Administration (Lower Credit) from the University of Jos, Plateau State,
Nigeria on 26 of November 1996 which the 1st Defendant stated and supplied in
Affidavit in support of Personal Particulars of Persons seeking election to
Office/Membership of Plateau State House of Assembly in respect of Jos
North-North Constituency of Plateau State sworn in the Registry of the High
Court, on the 16th December, 2014 to the Independent National Electoral
Commission is false.
" That
the 1st Defendant was not qualified to contest election into Plateau State
House of Assembly in respect of Jos North-North Constituency in view of the
fact that the information that the 1st Defendant possesses is false.
" That
the plaintiff is the rightful candidate of the 2nd Defendant ( APC) in the
election into the Plateau State House of Assembly in respect of the Jos
North-North Constituency of Plateau State held on the 11"1 April, 2015, being
the only qualified aspirant in the Primary Election held by the 2nd Defendant
to nominate its candidate for the said election concerning the Plateau State
House of Assembly in respect of Jos North Constituency of Plateau State, to
have contested the said election.
"An
Order disqualifying the 1St Defendant as the Candidate of the 2nd Defendant (
APC) for election to the Plateau State House of Assembly in respect of Jos
North-North Constituency of Plateau State held on the 11th April, 2015, on the
ground of violation of Section 31 (5) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended)
and non fulfilment of the constitutional requirement to conduct the said
election.
"An
Order directing the 3rd Defendant ( INEC) to accept and recognize forthwith the
name of the Plaintiff as the legitimate Candidate of the 2nd Defendant for the
2015 elections into the State House of Assembly for Jos North-North
Constituency in plateau State.
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