Certificate Forgery: Edo Senator Dragged To Court

Senator Domingo Obende of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, representing  Edo North Senatorial District at the National Assembly has been dragged before a Federal High Court sitting  in Abuja over an alleged forgery of a primary school certificate.

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Yisa Braimoh, who lost to Obende at the election instituted the case urging the court to determine whether the documents presented by Obende to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the purpose of contesting the April 9 Senatorial election did not contravene the provisions of Section 66 (1)(i) of the nation’s constitution.

When the matter came up on Monday, the trial judge, Justice Abdul Kafarati, consolidated both the Originating Summons and the Preliminary Objection filed by Obende and his party and adjourned till 17 November to decide whether the embattled Senator will face full trial over the allegations.

Also Joined as defendants in the suit are Action Congress of Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Senate of the National Assembly and the Inspector General of Police.

When parties were called by the court to adopt their briefs of argument on the consolidated applications, Senator Obende’s  counsel, Mr. M.A Ofeoshi, requested for a short adjournment on the ground that one of the defendants’ lawyers had requested for him to obtain a short adjournment for he could not make it to court as his car had developed a mechanical fault on his way to court.

Counsel to Braimoh and his party, the PDP, Mr. Mamman Osuman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, protested the request for an adjournment.

He argued that at the last sitting of the court, all parties agreed to proceed with the case today.

He added that by virtue of Order 22 rule 9 of the Federal High Court rule, once a party have filed his final address and fixed a date for adoption, If any of the parties is absent on that date and the court is satisfied that he was on notice as to the date, his address will be deemed to have been adopted since all the address are before the court.

Braimoh and the PDP had posed 8-legal questions for the determination of the court, among which were, “whether senator Obende is not liable to automatically vacate his seat as a member of Senate representing Edo North Senatorial District in the Senate of the National Assembly having regard to the provisions of Section 66(2) (a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.

They also want the court to determine “whether the 1st plaintiff,senator Braimoh, should not be declared as the senator representing Edo North Senatorial District by INEC having regard to the fact that the ACN did not present a qualified candidate for the April 9, 2011 senatorial election in Edo State

“Should the court find that senator Obende lied and or misrepresented facts in Form CF001 which he submitted to the  INEC, whether same would not invalidate his purported results at the polls on 9th April 2011?,” Braimoh and his party queried.

The PDP candidate wants the court to make an order directing INEC to withdraw and or cancel forthwith the Certificate of Return issued to senator Obende and to declare him as the senator representing Edo North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, having scored the highest valid votes out of all the qualified (candidates) that contested the election.

He also wants the court to make an order  directing INEC to issue him a Certificate of Return as the senator representing the Edo North Senatorial District in the Senate having contested the April 9, 2011 election and scored the second highest votes of 65, 264.

Not done, senator Braimoh also wants the court to make an order directing the Inspector General of Police to initiate criminal proceedings against senator Obende for misrepresenting and lying on oath.

The plaintiffs went further to demand that the University of Benin be directed to withdraw/cancel/rescind the B. Sc. Public Administration certificate number UB/0026294 dated 17 October, 2003 issued to Obende at the 2000/2001 academic session.

By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja