Certificate forgery: Forum faults court sacking of Benue Rep-elect

BENUE Youth Forum has faulted
judgment of a Federal High Court
in Abuja that sacked the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, House
of Representatives member-elect
for Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo
federal constituency of Benue
State, Christian Abah.
The court presided by Justice
Adeniyi Ademola voided Abah’s
certificate of return issued to him
by the Independent National
Electoral, INEC, on grounds of
certificate forgery, but the forum
observed that the judgment
did not explore all necessary
ingredients of proof.
A statement issued by president
of the forum, Mr. Alu Hemba
and made available to Nigerian
Pilot, described the judgment
as “miscarriage of justice” and
therefore called on Abah to appeal
the judgment to the appellate
court for redress.
Mr. Hemba held that the
learned justice did not do proper
verification on Abah’s certificate
before passing the judgment,
stating that Abah had acquired
certificates that he used to fill the
INEC forms qualifying him for all
elective positions in the country.
He argued that the forgery case
in question was used against
Abah in 2011 general elections
which he won but was denied by
the court.
The forum accused the plaintiff,
Hon. Hassan Saleh of using
the same method he used in
2011 against Abah to ride to
the House of Representatives
against the wish of the masses
of the federal constituency, and
called for proper verification of
the documents in order to avert
miscarriage of justice.
The statement assured of Abah’s
clean certificates which would be
tendered in a competent court of
law as proof of genuineness of his
educational attainment.
“I tell you, Saleh has failed this
time because his antics will not
work for him anymore,” Hemba
stated.
The youth president therefore
called on Abah’s supporters to
remain calm as the case would
be tackled at the Appeal Court,
adding that Saleh was just using
the certificate allegation to tarnish
the rising political profile of Hon
Abah whom he considers as
threat to his political interest.
It would be recalled that Hon
Abah had defeated Saleh twice
in the contest for the federal
constituency