Tobias Sylvester
The Federal Government has filed a six count charges against Mr. Obinna Uzoh, his lawyer, Eziafa Samuel Enwedo, for allegedly forging court documents to remove Senator Ifeanyi Ubah from office as the duly elected senator representing Anamabra South Senatorial district.
Uzoh, Enwedo and others who are now at large, claimed to have obtained a judgment from the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), purporting to sack Ifeanyi Ubah, who represents Anambra South in the Senate, for allegedly giving false information to INEC about his academic qualifications.
But, in a six-charge filed on March 12, 2020, Enwedo was accused of working with three others, to forge documents relating to the suit in favour of Ubah’s main opposition politician, Obinna Uzor.
Also named in the charge filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/78/2020, are the claimant in the said suit, Anani Anacletus Chuka; Aroh Ifunanya and Faith Samuel.
Investigations by the officers of the Nigerian Police Force under the leadership of the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu NPM, mni unearthed what may be described as an unprecedented fraud and scandal-webbed in massive fraud currently rocking the FCT High Court involving several judicial staff, lawyers and litigants.
The suspects are alleged to have mutilated the court register and cloned Suit No. Cv/3044/2018 which was allotted in 2018 to S & M Holdings Limited V Persons unknown filed on the 17th of October 2018) and affixed Suit No. Cv/3044/2018 to Anani Ana-cletusChuka vs Ifeanyi Ubah & Ors.
The suspects also forged the assignment directive of the Chief judge of the FCT High Court to purportedly assign the matter to Honourable justice Kawu.
A copy of the investigation report and charge sighted by our reporter shows that the suspects forged all the processes purportedly filed in the suit with a view to obtaining judgment in a false pre-election matter filed in 2019 but backdated to 2018.
Interaction with anonymous staff of the Court indicates that this level of massive fraud is unprecedented and that many ‘heads will roll’ as the Chief judge is determined not to allow the reforms he has brought into the FCT High Court to position it as model for other courts to be rubbished by compromised staff.
The charge filed by the FG alleges that all the processes filed in the Suit were forged including the judgment. The purported filing fee receipt which was originally dated as 25th September 2019 was mutilated to read 19th October 2018.
A letter written by the office of the Chief Registrar of the FCT High Court confirmed that the filing of the cloned Suit No.Cv/3044/2018 was done on 25th September 2019. The date of judgment in the suit, 11th April 2019, predates the actual date of filing the suit.
Following a complaint, the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court Justice Isaq Bello who restated his commitment to rid the FCT High Court of bad eggs directed the Petitions Committee of the Court to investigate the matter during which startling revelations were made.
The committee commenced sitting on the 10th of March 2020 and concluding its hearing today. The staff of the FCT High Court who testified stated that the real suit filed by the suspect was in Suit No.Cv/2829/2019 which was filed on 6th September 2019 with the same identical processes filed by the suspects in Cv/3044/2018 based on which the obtained judgment.
Counsel to Senator Ubah C.N Nwigwe Esq at the concluding hearing of the committee on Thursday, 12th March, 2020, submitted that ‘the court never sat for a day, the staff of the court and the judge sat down perhaps in a room and fabricated all the processes they put into the file and generated a judgment.
The letter from the Nigerian Bar Association which is an exhibit before this panel shows that the seal of the lawyers affixed on the processes had not been produced as at the date of filing, the Chief Judge’s staff have openly demonstrated that the assignment directive of the suit to justice Kawu was forged and the FCT that the recipe number endorsed on the originating summons was a receipt issued in September 2019 more than 11 months after the suit was purportedly filed and about four months after judgment was purportedly delivered makes this case the biggest judicial fraud in the history of Nigeria’.
The suspects knowing that Suit No.CV/2829/2019 was time barred having been commenced after the conduct of 2019 elections connived with judicial staff to take a suit number that was already in existence, prepare processes and back date them to 2018, fabricate proof of service of those processes on Senator Ubah and INEC and the YPP and then generate a judgment in concert with judicial staff.
The Independent Natonal Electoral Commission has also confirmed that the purported stamp of the commission that was affixed on the proof of service of processes in Suit No. Cv/3044/2018 were forged as they do not have a staff of the commission known as Alhassan Sule in the legal services department and the stamp affixed purporting to be that of INEC is also forged.
The suspects will be arraigned next week on six count charges.
