Certificate forgery: Lawmaker knows fate January 25

Justice Salisu Saliu  of the Federal High Court in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has fixed January 25 for the final ruling in the petition filed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the April National Assembly election, Alphonsus Nwali. Nwali alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Tobias Okwuru forged certificate.

The APGA candidate had filed a petition at the Federal High Court alleging that the PDP candidate representing Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives was not qualified to contest the election having presented  forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Counsel to the plaintiff Gabriel Amadi had filed an affidavit for originating summons on the matter on May 25 and filed another one on November 18 in support of the originating summon.

When the matter came up on November 22 for adoption of written addresses of the two parties, Amadi told the court that Okwuru was not qualified to contest the Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency election having allegedly submitted fake certificates to INEC.

“The issue we are really canvassing is that the 2nd defendant presented fake certificate to the 1st defendant (INEC), which is contrary to the Constitution of Nigeria and as a result of this, was not qualified to contest the election. The non- possession of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge or exemption certificate is a non-possession of university certificate because nobody can have a valid university certificate without corresponding NYSC certificate.

“The university certificate is compiled from the graduating list of a university and when a student’s name is not contained there, his or her certificate must be fake, even if a student’s name was omitted in the graduating list, his or her name must be indicated in the subsequent convocation,” Amadi said.

Counsel to the 2nd defendant S.O Odii argued that the plaintiff’s counsel had failed to pin his argument on any law.

Justice Saliu said the authorities of the institution would be summoned to give evidence and reserved the ruling for January 25.