- Last Updated on 20 May 2015
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The electoral victory of Christian Abah, the House of Representatives member-elect for the Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, has been cut short with a judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to nullify the electoral victory by retrieving the certificate of return issued to Abah.
Apart from this, the court also ordered that the member-elect be prosecuted for forging his educational certificate and deceiving Nigerians.
The verdict came from the court presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, which had been hearing the suit filed by his rival, Hassan Saleh, challenging Abah’s eligibility to stand for the election with the allegation that his forged his certificate.
Justice Ademola declared his election invalid adding that all votes he won during the election were invalid. He also ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, to prosecute Abah
He also declared Saleh, who came second during the PDP primaries in December, 2014 as winner of the primary election and ordered the in-coming Speaker of the eighth Assembly to swear in Saleh as the representative of the Federal Constituency.
He also ordered INEC to issue a fresh certificate of return to Saleh.
Justice Ademola declared that the investigation carried out by the court showed that, indeed, Abah forged his Ordinary National Diploma certificate in Accountancy, which he claims he obtained from the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, in 1985.
The judge further condemned INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for allowing Abbah to contest despite an earlier judgment of the National/State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Makurdi, which on 6th September 2011, delivered a judgement against Abbah over certificate forgery as well as a letter from the Registrar of the polytechnic, Suleiman Buba, who proved that the certificate Abah presented to INEC was forged.
The judge further ordered that his judgment be served on the Nigerian Bar Association, the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for them to take appropriate sanction against the counsel to the PDP for inappropriate conduct while imposing a N450,000 fine on the three defendants – the PDP, INEC and Abah in favour of the plaintiff.
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