Forgery: Court sacks Plateau lawmaker
A Federal High sitting in Jos has sacked a member of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Ibrahim Baba Hassan, over diploma certificate he claimed to have obtained from the University of Jos.
The court also ordered the lawmaker to pay back into the treasury of Plateau State Government, all the salaries and allowances he received since he was elected as a state lawmaker.
Hassan, who is currently representing Jos North-North constituency at the Plateau State House of Assembly, was taken to court in 2015 by Abdul Nasir Saleh, challenging the authenticity of his diploma certificate in Business Administration which he claimed to have obtained from University of Jos.
Saleh contested party primaries with the lawmaker on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 where he came second.
In his judgement, yesterday, the presiding judge, Justice Musa Kurya, said there was no trace of proof that the diploma certificate submitted to INEC by the lawmaker was genuinely obtained from the University Jos.
Kurya said based on the direct and oral evidences submitted by the registrar of the institution before the court, it was true that the certificate presented by the embattled lawmaker to INEC in 2015 was not obtained from the said institution.
Justice Kurya added that the evidence given by the registrar, “is true and uncontroversial.”
He also ruled that the plaintiff was the rightful candidate of the 2nd defendant (APC) in the election into the Plateau State House of Assembly in respect of the Jos North-North Constituency of the state held on April 11, 2015.
The judge granted an order directing the 3rd Defendant (INEC) to accept and recognise forthwith the name of the plaintiff as the legitimate candidate of the 2nd defendant for the 2015 elections into the State House of Assembly for Jos North-North Constituency in the state.
He also ordered that the sum of N5 million being the total legal fees for prosecuting the matter from inception and N25 million as general damages to be given to the plaintiff.