BENUE PDP REP-ELECT LOSES SEAT, FACES PROSECUTION OVER FORGERY

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to nullify the Certificate of Return issued to Christian Abah for the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives at the forthcoming 8th National Assembly.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola, delivering judgment in the suit, challenging Abah's eligibility to stand for the election, held that the allegation of certificate forgery levelled against him by the plaintiff, Mr. Hassan Saleh, had been established to be true.

Abah was said to have forged an Ordinary National Diploma certificate in Accountancy, purportedly obtained from the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, in 1985.

Justice Ademola said his findings revealed that an earlier judgment of the National/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Makurdi, delivered on September 6, 2011, and a letter by the Registrar of the polytechnic, Mr. Suleiman Buba, affirmed that the certificate presented by Abah to INEC was forged.

The court ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to immediately commence prosecution of Abah for forgery and perjury.

Abah, who is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, had earlier been declared unopposed and elected being the only candidate presented for the March 28, 2015 election.

The court, in his judgment, declared all the votes that accrued to him in the PDP's p