Court refuses to sack Kogi House of Reps member – TheNigerialawyer

A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected a suit seeking to
sack a member of the House of Representatives, Lawal Idris for
allegedly forging his academic credentials.

In a judgement on Friday, Justice Taiwo Taiwo dismissed the suit
filed by Okino Adeiza of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the
grounds that the court was without jurisdiction to hear it.

Idris, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
representing Ajaokuta Federal Constituency, won re-election at the
last National Assembly election.

Adeiza, who contested the election on the platform of PDP,
alleged in the suit, that Idris was not qualified to contest the
election.

He claimed, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/2018, that Idris
gave false personal information in the Form CF001 he submitted to
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2015 and
2019.

The plaintiff claimed that Idris submitted forged National
Diploma (ND) purportedly issued by the Yaba College of Technology,
Lagos to INEC in 2015 as his highest qualification.

Adeiza stated that, although Idris excluded the allegedly forged
ND certificate from the documents he submitted for the 2019
election, he (Idris) also made false claim, in the Form CF001 he
submitted for the last election, when he said he had never given
false information to INEC in the past.

The palintiff argued that, by allegedly submitting forged
credentials to INEC in 2015 and making false claim in 2019 that he
had never supplied false information to INEC in the past, Idris was
no longer qualified to stand for election, and should be
disqualified.

He listed the APC, INEC and Idris as 1st, 2nd and 3rd
defendants.

Justice Taiwo, in the judgment on Friday, upheld the objections
raised by the defendants about the competence of the suit; declined
jurisdiction and dismissed it.

Justice Taiwo particularly, agreed with the lawyer to Idris,
Abdul Ibrahim (SAN) that the suit was not only statute barred, it
was caught by the twin legal doctrine of estopel and res
judicata.

The judge noted that, after the 2015 elections, Adeiza had
challenged Idris’ eligibility up to the Court of Appeal, with the
appellate court holding that he (Adeiza) failed to prove his claim
of forgery against Idris.

Justice Taiwo said, since the Court of Appeal had held that the
allegation of forgery was not proved in the post 2015 election
litigation, it was wrong for Adeiza to seek to re-litigate an issue
already decided by the Court of Appeal.

The judge also held that the suit offends the provision of
Section 285(9) of the Constitution, having not been filed within 14
days after the APC submitted Idris’ name to INEC as its candidate
for the election.

“This suit, a pre-election matter was not commenced within 14
days after the submission of the 3rd def’s name (Idris) to INEC as
candidate of the 1st defendant (APC) as its candidate for the
election.

“The judgement of the Court of Appeal has laid to rest the
allegation of forgery, whether of age or certificates, raised
against the 3rd defendant (Idris),” the judge said.

In holding that the suit was an abuse of court process, the
judge said the case did not only abuse the process of the court
process, having been filed mala fie (in bad faith), it was
incompetent.

Justice Taiwo said, having pursued the issue of forgery against
Idris up to the Court of Appeal (which is the last court in
legislative election disputes) and failed, the plaintiff ought not
to have come before the Federal High Court again on the same
issue.

The judge said the right step was for Adeiza to ask the police
to investigate and prosecute Idris on the allegation of forgery or
obtain a fiat from the police to prosecute Idris for the alleged
criminal offence of forgery.