Seriki Adinoyi in Jos
A new judge of the Federal High Court 2 Jos, Plateau State, Justice D V Agishe, wednesday took over the continuation of the certificate forgery case leveled against the state lawmaker, Hon. Ibrahim Baba Hassan, who was alleged to have forged a diploma certificate of the University of Jos with which he contested and won the 2015 election into the state House of Assembly.
Justice Musa Kurya, who was presiding over the suit with no FHC/J /CS/20/ 2015 filed by Abdul Nasir Saleh, was suspended without cogent reasons thereby slowing down proceeding on the case.
During the last sitting presided over by the suspended judge on October 12, 2016, the Registrar of the university, Monday M Danjen, was summoned by the court where he tendered evidence against Hassan, clarifying that the lawmaker did not graduate from the university.
At the resumption of the hearing yesterday, counsel to the first defendant, M M Nyelong, had drawn the attention of the court to his last request on October 12, 2016, demanding to amend his statement of defence by withdrawing the diploma certificate and rely on the secondary school certificate, since it also qualified the lawmaker to the position he contested for.
But responding to the application, the counsel to the plaintiff, David C Ibeawuchi, accepted the application of the defence counsel to regularise his statement of defence, but that the amendment to withdraw the diploma certificate and rely on the secondary school certificate by the first defendant cannot be entertained since the contention is on the said diploma certificate submitted to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
